Anachronistic Drift
by Elesrea
Summary: Her plan was flawless. Save Shisui. Save the world. Time-travel, Sakura-centric AU
1. Chapter 1

A/N: So I was binging on Naruto fics lately and this story just came out like word vomit. I don't think I've ever written so quickly in a single setting.

I don't have this story planned out much, so a lot of this is just writing as I go. I also don't have a beta so beware typos as you go through the chapter. Hopefully I was able to catch most of them but my editing is never perfect. If you see something atrocious, point it out to me.

I'm trying out a new style with this story by mashing a bunch of different character perspectives and timelines, almost like snippets of the event instead of a full blown chapter in just Sakura's point of view. _They will not all be in chronological order_.

This fic is gen, meaning, I will not focus on pairings and/or romantic exploits. I'll consider intertwining it later, but at the moment, no pairings except for the obvious canon ones.

I'll say this once and apply it to all the chapters from here on out: I do not own Naruto.

Let's begin.

* * *

Chapter 1

.

"Sakura… Are you absolutely sure—"

"Yes, we've discussed this and I've looked over the theory hundreds of times! I can do it."

Kakashi sighed tiredly, running a hand through his unruly white hair.

"I know. This is just extremely dangerous," he said quietly.

Her eyes softened, and she placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. "I wouldn't do this if I had another choice."

He gave her a stiff nod, allowing the two of them to enter a deep underground cave. Sakura ran through a special set of hand seals, activating a seal that blocked off all waves of chakra from entering or leaving. She required absolute secrecy.

In the deepest room of the cavern, Sakura lowered her third and final sacrifice within the ritual circle. The small deer in her arms whined and tried to escape, but the paralytic held, allowing the seal to trap the animal in.

"Forgive me," she whispered, brushing her fingertips against its snout.

Sakura got to her feet, standing near the mouth of the cave where she took in her handiwork. Three animals were locked down against the cold ground, black scribbles of long and tedious seals keeping them trapped in place. A special scroll was laid out in front of her, and she gave a deep exhale before steeling her nerves.

"Here we go."

Clapping her hands together with a burst of chakra, she watched as the scroll in front of her shot out a web of intricate sealing, surrounding each animal in a wide circle. White strips of ash erupted from the ground, sticking onto the sacrifices like a second skin. There was an anguished cry of pain before the white form increased in height as if it was growing.

Sakura slammed her hands onto the dirt, sending a wave of chakra.

" _Kuchiyose: Edo Tensei no Jutsu_! _"_

The seals vanished as the white strips of ash burst away, revealing three revived shinobi standing before her.

Kakashi took in a sharp breath, meeting the gaze of the man in the middle.

Obito's eyes widened, the cracks in his skin making the scarred side of his face seem strained. "Kakashi? Is this…?"

"Edo Tensei," a gruff voice answered to his right. Jiraiya crossed his arms, frowning. "Though, never in a million years would I have predicted you'd be the one to revive me."

Sakura decided to take it as a compliment, giving all three Shinobi a courteous bow of her head. "Forgive me. I wouldn't have done this if there was another choice."

Itachi stood to Obito's left, raising his hand in an experimental manner. "You've changed something. I can hardly feel my chakra."

"I've altered the jutsu to accept animal sacrifices instead of human ones," she explained, "and there's an added seal that suppresses and converts your chakra so it's undetectable."

Jiraiya whistled. "Never thought you'd take up sealing, Sakura-chan. How did you manage to get my DNA anyway? I'm pretty sure my body is under leagues of water."

"The Toad Summoning Scroll," she said with a small smile. "And the Crow contract for Itachi-san. It took years to find, but I managed."

"And mine?" Obito raised an eyebrow. "Pretty sure I burst into dust from Kaguya's attack."

"Yours was much more difficult," Sakura admitted. "But because your Sharingan was in Kakashi's body for so long, a bit of your chakra remained. I was able to separate and purify it in order to get it to a useable state."

"Impressive indeed," Jiraiya said in approval. "I guess I'm not surprised you managed to excel in Fuinjutsu. You've always been the smartest of the bunch. Naruto was never into it, saying it took too much studying and extra calligraphy practice."

Sakura's laugh died in her throat, and she felt her expression contort at Naruto's name.

All three shinobi stiffened at the realization.

"There's a reason you called us out," Obito said carefully. "What's going on?"

She swallowed, receiving an encouraging nod from Kakashi.

She gave them a quick and brief rundown of the events after Jiraiya and Itachi's death, as neither of them had been there to see the resurrection of the Ten-tails, Uchiha Madara, the Infinite Tsukuyomi, and Kaguya Otsutsuki.

"So seven years ago, after Kaguya had been sealed away with Cibaku Tensei, Sasuke challenged Naruto to a final battle to see whose resolve would triumph over the other." Itachi's eyes widened at this. "They fought in the Valley of the End, with Sasuke ultimately killing Naruto—"

"What?" Jiraiya gasped, mouth wide.

Sakura nodded firmly. "Kakashi and I believe that this is when Sasuke truly lost all parts of his past self. He declared that he would carry the hate of the world as his older brother had once done, dealing with all of the Shinobi problems, including executing justice and punishment. Using his newly developed Rinnegan, he forced all nine Bijū under his control and killed every Kage that were trapped in the Infinite Tsukuyomi."

All three looked petrified.

"Now flash forward seven years to the present," she continued, "there are no more shinobi villages. Sasuke completely decimated all forms of community and life, using the Bijū to their destructive potentials. The shinobi who survived the Fourth War scattered across the lands but even then, nothing is the same. There are no alliances. There is no war. But at the same time, there _is no life_."

Silence reigned through the cave with the only sound being Sakura's own heartbeat. At last, Itachi cradles his face in the palm of his hands.

"This may be my punishment for everything I've done," he muttered. "I've wronged him incredibly so that he's come to this."

"You're not to blame Itachi," Jiraiya spoke, his voice low with what Sakura frighteningly recognized as anger. "Sasuke is responsible for his actions and him only."

"And you were not given any other choice, Itachi-san," she added softly. "Please do not put this on yourself."

Obito grimaced. "So in the end, Sasuke became what Madara and I had once tried to become."

Kakashi nodded once. "He's become Kaguya Otsutsuki—controlling the world with power and fear."

"Then why are we here?" Obito asked at last. "We really can't do anything for you."

Sakura felt her own heart skip a beat and Kakashi refused to meet his eyes. After a tense moment, she took a deep breath.

"I'm going back in time to change everything."

The reaction was instantaneous.

"Are you crazy?" Jiraiya shouted. "There's a good reason why no one's ever attempted such a straining time-space jutsu! You'll tear yourself apart not minding the chakra needed to pull off such a task."

"I know of the difficulties, Jiraiya-sama, but please hear me out—I've been thinking about this for the past six years, and developing the necessary points," she said defiantly.

"Kakashi! You've honestly been letting her do this?" the Sannin demanded.

He sighed softly. "Like we first said, there is no other way to turn. Sakura had glazed over much of the destruction and change that has happened. At this rate, the entire Elemental Nations will perish within a decade."

That quieted the cave once again.

Rubbing her forehead, Sakura removed the large scroll from her back, unsealing it with a mixture of her blood and chakra. It clicked open and she rolled the entire contents open for Jiraiya's eyes.

"This is what I've been developing for the past six years," she said, watching as all three men approached her open scroll. There were thousands upon thousands on tiny markings that ran along the paper.

"This…" Jiraiya traced over the center of her seal, eyes impossibly wide. "This is Orochimaru's—"

"Fushi Tensei, yes," she confirmed. "I studied the way he was able to transfer his soul from one body to another, and twisted his work for my own needs. I'm not planning on taking this body with me, just my soul. It'll—"

"Put less pressure on the chakra needed," Jiraiya nodded absentmindedly. "But it would still be an enormous amount—comparable to a Biju."

Sakura jabbed a thumb at the diamond seal on her forehead. "This is why I am the only one who can do this. I've been collecting chakra in my Yin seal since the war ended, without having released it once. If my calculations are right, it's enough to warp the time by fourteen years."

"You'll be nine," Itachi quickly did the math. "What do you hope to accomplish then?"

"Actually, my goal is to gather enough chakra to add four more years so I can arrive when I'm five," she admitted. "The first thing that needs to get done is to prevent the Uchiha massacre, which is why I've brought you here, Itachi-san."

"Hn."

"And you need me, to understand the movements of the Akatsuki," Obito said in realization. "As well as stopping the Eye of the Moon Plan."

She nodded.

Jiraiya scowled. "I'll admit you've thought this out quite thoroughly but that doesn't make it any less simpler. You're messing with something completely out of our leagues."

"Then I'll die trying," she shot back fiercely. "Even if it takes my death, I'll save Naruto, and I'll save Sasuke too… I've lived long enough here anyway."

All eyes laid on her at the statement, and Sakura straightened her back in determination.

"Then I will help you," Obito said first, eyes darting to Kakashi with a nod. "I have no other way to redeem my unforgivable actions—"

"Obito," Kakashi scrunched his face.

"No, it's true, I don't need your arguments, Kakashi," he raised a hand, turning back to her. "I'm putting my faith in you."

She nodded firmly, feeling her chest lift at the statement. She wouldn't fail him. "It won't be misplaced."

"I'll help you as well, Sakura-san," Itachi spoke. "I've failed Sasuke greatly by trying to do everything on my own, so this time, I'll put my trust in you like I did with Naruto."

"Ugh, fine!" Jiraiya crossed his arms, getting to his feet again. "You better make sure Naruto stays alive this time. He was supposed to be Hokage, you know?"

"And he will," she said without a moment of hesitation. "He'll be a great one."

A large hand clasped her shoulder and she turned to see Kakashi give her a reassuring grip. "We're going to change history. _All of us._ "

.

* * *

.

Sakura stared at the white mask in her hands, giving it one last glance over before pulling it over her face. She strapped on her chest plate that all standard Anbu bore along with the arm guards. Turning to the mirror, she studied her reflection.

Her hair had been temporarily dyed an unassuming and passable dark brown, hiding her most distinctive trait. The Anbu geared sparked a sudden memory from her past but she pushed it aside, satisfied with her appearance.

There was a small _poof_ of smoke on her dresser and a tiny palm sized lizard came crawling forth at startling speed.

"Sakura-chan, Danzo's moving. It's time."

She nodded, letting the reptile crawl onto her hand.

"Sei, do I look passable enough?" She questioned.

The lizard made a face. "If eight year olds could pass as Anbu, then yes."

She sighed. "I'm twenty-nine. And besides, the Sharingan can decipher when a henge is being used. Is Mika still trailing Shisui?"

"Aye."

Taking a deep breath, she calmed her nerves. "Let's go."

Feeling the tug of her Hiraishin seal on her summon, she released a spike of chakra and vanished from the room.

Landing silently on top of the Naka River, Sakura turned her gaze to see a small brown lizard on the wall of the cliff. She quickly concealed her chakra and her own heartbeat to where hardly anything was left.

"Mika," she greeted the small summon. "Shisui?"

"Two streets down from above us by the temple. Hurry Sakura-chan, I can sense fighting."

Nodding in thanks, Sakura bolted up the cliff's face, spreading out her senses to try and track other shinobi, specifically, Root. Danzō would have called them for aid as soon as the battle started.

When her scan returned negative, she threw herself over the cliff's edge onto land, heart silently pounding in her chest.

This was the moment she had been preparing for three years. She could not fail.

 _Breathe, Sakura._

She flickered down the streets as Mika had said, spotting two figures tucked away in the middle of the road by the temple. Chakra was wildly fluctuating around them, and to Sakura's anger, Shisui's right eye was already closed and bleeding.

She flipped through a well-practiced hand seal, focusing on Shisui's flickering form. She only had one chance. Once the element of surprise was over, her mission would get impossibly harder.

Releasing a specialized substitution jutsu, she felt her body being tugged forward, and in a blink of an eye, she was engaging Danzō, Shisui warped to her position down the street. His mismatched eyes widened at the sudden change in target, but Sakura was faster.

Her right hand came over his heart before Danzō could jump away, and high frequency chakra erupted from her palm. His back exploded outwards with blood and broken skin, the pressure of her chakra snapping his bones and rupturing all organs in range. Her other hand immediately formed a chakra scalpel, lengthening to rival a tantō, and slashed across Danzō's eyes, disabling his Sharingan.

His body seemed to fall forward in slow motion, and Sakura quickly snatched Shisui's right eye from the elder's grip.

Danzō sagged against the ground not a moment after six chakra signatures flashed into the scene.

Root.

"Stand down," she ordered, muffling her voice with chakra. "Danzō is dead. The silence seal has been removed due to his demise and orders from Hokage-sama state for Root's separation."

To her expectation, none of the shinobi moved. Sai had told her there were no certain orders or regulations in the chance of Danzō's death. He was simply that confident. And given the fact that he had all their emotions suppressed, no soldier felt an inkling of retaliation for their leader's death.

It was the ultimate price to pay in the end.

Giving the specific root hand signs that Sai had taught her, she signaled for retreat and hide.

To her utmost relief, all six flashed away.

Crouching low next to Danzō's broken body, she forced his chin up and ripped out his stolen Sharingan. Although it was completely obliterated from her attack, the outside remained perfectly intact.

Flipping through a familiar set of seals, she bit her thumb and palmed the dirt ground.

 _Kuchiyose no Jutsu!_

A cloud erupted under her hand as a large lizard appeared in the smoke. He was well over three meters in length with jagged scars marking the left side of his face. A long forked tongue slithered out.

"Mission success?" he asked, looking at the corpse.

"Success," she confirmed. "Body ready for your disposal."

"Hn," he grunted. "I except the highest form of recompense for having to shoulder this disgusting excuse of a Shinobi."

She nearly smirked. "Of course, Kanae."

His jaw opened impossibly wide, and after a moment of effort, Danzō's body was swallowed whole.

"I'll never get used to that," she muttered, smiling slightly.

"Taste like dirt too," Kanae grumbled. "Take care of my two fools."

"Of course."

The large lizard poofed out of existence just as Mika and Sei came crawling forward.

"Brother left?" Mika asked.

Sakura nodded. "Mika, I need you to track down Shisui again. I have no doubt he escaped the moment he could. He's still injured and disorientated, so the faster we find him the better. Sei, track down Itachi. Shisui will attempt to give him his remaining eye to commit suicide. We can't have that. Part two of our mission starts now."

With a silent salute, both lizards disappeared.

Crouching one more, she pulled out a blank storage scroll, created specifically for medical purposes. Sterilizing Shisui's Sharingan, she placed it at the center and sealed the organ with a quick hand sign. She tucked the scroll into her hip bag and rose to her feet.

As she stood alone in the clearing, Sakura let out a tight breath. She was going to better the future. She swore it.

Shaking away all her thoughts, Sakura flashed away, heading towards the backside of the Hokage Tower where Danzō's office was held. Knowing the news of his death would ultimately reach the Hokage's ears; she had no time to spare. Utilizing a proper henge, she transformed into her old height, giving the average appearance of an Anbu soldier.

She slipped into the secret Root passageways underneath the ground, heading towards the room at the far end of the hall.

She had unhinged this office once before in her past timeline, she was positive she could do it again.

Overriding the seal on the door, she entered the office and immediately went to work. All hidden compartments she remembered were open and trashed out, sealed papers and mission scrolls were broken, and all classified information she could get her hands on were brought out into the open. By the end, the entire office had been turned inside out.

With hope, Sarutobi would send someone to check Danzō's office and would find it as such. She needed him to know of all the things that man had carried out behind his back—every little mission detail. As much as she respected the Third, there was an inkling of bitterness that crept into her heart when she realized he had simply not tried enough with Danzō. He had purposefully turned a blind eye to the man's activities and that was something that Sakura could not let go.

A small cloud materialized on the messy desk, and Mika appeared.

"Shisui's currently hiding in the forest behind the Uchiha compound," he revealed. "He quite injured and half-blind, I don't think he's going to move for a while."

Straightening her back, she nodded. "Itachi?"

"In a training ground on the other side of the village. Sei's keeping an eye on him."

Satisfied, she held out her hand. "It's time to wrap this up. Lead me to him."

The lizard crawled up her arm and rested himself on her shoulder as Sakura jumped out the window, removing the henge.

She leaped soundlessly from roof to roof, flickering in the air to make her movements were completely undetectable to the normal eye. Within ten minutes, she had covered the distance and sped into the thick forest.

"North-west, Sakura-chan," Mika guided, flicking his tongue in the air. "He's in the same spot."

She spread out her senses, completely hiding her own and felt for his signature. "Got him."

Without another word, Mika poofed away, undoubtedly to report to Sei.

Sakura treaded carefully, knowing that any wrong movement could throw him off. He had been wrongfully attacked and beaten by a council member of Konoha, and she could only trust in his pacifist nature to not charge her on sight.

When she was in twenty meters of him, she finally spotted his messy hair, body hunched between two large branches. He was definitely hidden well. Purposefully stepping onto a branch, she allowed her presence to be known.

Shisui's head snapped up, his left eye blazing red. Sakura stopped moving towards him entirely, allowing him his space.

"Danzō is dead," she said firmly, hands out in a universal sign of peace. "I am here to help. Please trust me."

Shock filtered through his face before confusion. "Who are you? I know Danzō keeps his own Anbu division, and I've never seen you before."

Slowly, as if to show all her movements, she reached into her pouch and pulled out a storage scroll. After a hand sign and some chakra, she lifted his stolen Sharingan.

"I am a shinobi of Konoha. Will you allow me to transplant your eye back in? There's only so much time it can be sustained outside a body."

If he wasn't surprised before, his expression definitely showed it now. The Sharingan couldn't be duplicated, and there were no traces of genjutsu around her.

Yet even with solid proof, she knew she was putting him in a dangerous position. By allowing her to do the procedure, he was giving her direct opportunity to possibly take his other eye.

"Are you the one who substituted me during our fight?" he asked carefully.

Finding no point in lying, she gave a firm nod.

"Then you're also the one who's responsible for Danzō's death?"

"His death was necessary," she said softly. "As much as I dislike to take life without reason, please do not mourn for him."

After a silent moment, Shisui gave her a hesitant, but solid nod, and Sakura took this as her cue to approach. Exhaling in relief, she covered the distance between them with visible steps, crouching by his side with his eye in hand.

"Head back," she murmured, pushing back his forehead so that he was lying on his back.

She placed her free hand over his bloody socket, diagnosing the injury. Since the eye was forcibly ripped out, there were a lot of torn nerve endings that needed repair before she did the transplant. Sending in her chakra, she concentrated, starting the tedious process of realigning his eye socket and fixing the broken connections.

Minutes ticked by in silence as she gave all her concentration in healing. The eye was an incredibly delicate area, especially for the Uchiha, and one mistake could mean blindness.

She was suddenly thankful for all the times she had studied and soothed Kakashi's Sharingan issues.

When all was set, she began preparing for the transplant.

"Since when does Konoha start training them so young?" Shisui finally spoke, his voice dry. "You can't possibly be older than ten."

"Do not think my size indicates my age," she said evenly.

"You can't lie to me," he said confidently. "I can tell you still have baby fat around your wrists."

Curse him. Why did she even bother opening her mouth?

"Shisui-san, if you don't shut your mouth and let me concentrate, I'll transplant your eye in backwards. Purposefully."

To her utter surprise, he let out a chuckle, lips twisting into a grin.

As much as she wanted to sigh in exasperation, Sakura had a job to finish. "Listen. It is of utmost importance that you pull through with your Kotoamastukami. Even with Danzō dead, if the Uchiha coup manages to begin, there is no safe ending for anyone— do you understand?"

Shisui stiffened immediately, left eye boring into her. "Danzō gave the possibly that it might not be enough to—"

"Ignore Danzō," she said sharply, reestablishing all the torn connections in his eye. "Do not trust a word he spoke to you, he's a foul excuse of a man that was obsessed with power. Believe in your ability and believe in Konoha. We _cannot_ have another war break out."

He paused for a minute. "Who are you really? You're far too young to know all of this."

"The less you know, the better."

Silence settled in the air once more as Shisui didn't give back a response. Once his eye was fully restored, Sakura gave a pulse of diagnostic chakra into his system, checking for other injuries.

Three chakra signatures suddenly stared closing in on their location and Sakura realized she recognized two of them.

This was not good.

Pulling back her hand, she rose to her feet. "Go to the hospital, Shisui-san. You have multiple broken ribs, a dislocated shoulder, and your left lung is about to collapse."

"Can't heal me yourself?"

"Unfortunately, my stay is long overdue," she said easily, stepping back from him. "Take care, and remember your duty to our village."

Imagining the Hiraishin seal in her room, Sakura let the tug of chakra pull her out of the forest and she disappeared in a crack.

.

* * *

.

Sarutobi Hiruzen was having a very strange day.

The morning started out relatively normal with all his paperwork laid out on the table, unmoving no matter how many he went through within the hour. He had a nice talk with son, conversing the various pros and cons of utilizing a village-wide barrier, and changing up the rotation movement on the borders.

His day began to turn sour, however, as the sun began to set and an Anbu flashed into the room. The white hair and wolf mask gave him away as Minato's last reaming student.

"What is it?"

"Danzō is dead, Hokage-sama."

He immediately froze, eyes wide, a hundred different scenarios going through his mind.

"Details," he demanded. "When? How?"

"A disturbance was found near the Naka River Temple. After investigation, we can conclude there was a brief fight between Danzo and Uchiha Shisui. A third party was also present, but the scent was covered rather well. As of now, identity is unknown. Danzō's trace however, remains and died at the temple while Uchiha and the unknown third party traces towards the compound forest."

Sarutobi paled. He knew things have been rough between Danzo and the Uchiha, but surely murder wouldn't be his answer, he had talked to the boy just yesterday!

"Anything else?"

"I checked for Root's involvement, but they've completely gone underground. Danzō's office is overturned. All his seals are broken and every confidential mission is laid out around the room."

He rose to his feet. _Impossible._ "I want you to take bear and panther and track down Uchiha Shisui in the forest. I want him in my office when I get back."

"Hai."

Without need for another word, he flashed out of the office, heading straight towards Danzō's building.

Just what on earth was going on?

.

* * *

.

Shisui thought he had seen enough surprises in his life.

Apparently he was very, very wrong.

The Anbu disappeared without a trace. Completely. When normal shinobi executed the shunshin, there was always a trail of movement that followed after, even thought it was impossible to see with your eyes—it was still there.

But this? This wasn't fast movement. This was true teleportation. Not a figment of the Anbu's movement was left behind, as if they vanished on the spot.

"Shisui!"

His head snapped around. He could recognize that voice anywhere.

Three Anbu—ones he recognized this time—came running forth. Hatake Kakashi was at the head, Yugao Uzuki at his left, and Itachi on his right.

Itachi landed first, scanning his rugged appearance and noting the trail of dried blood below his right eye.

"You are to report to the Hokage immediately," Kakashi announced. "Can you move?"

"Mah," he grunted, "I'd prefer if I don't have to. My doctor said to take it easy, you know."

Ignoring his effort to lighten the mood, Itachi slung his arm around his shoulder and pulled him into the air. He groaned as the movement jostled his broken ribs, already finding it difficult to breathe.

"Taichō, Shisui needs the hospital," Uzuki said, undoubtedly glaring behind the mask.

"I'll be fine," he waved a hand, "Just watch my—Ouch! Itachi, watch my ribs!"

Kakashi sighed.

After a moment of settling, the four Anbu started their trek back to the Hokage Tower. Every jump rubbed at Shisui's ribs, but he kept silent, the only evidence of his pain being the pale tone of his skin.

At last, they made it back to the center of the village, flashing in through the windows in a typical Anbu fashion. Sarutobi was already waiting, standing in front of his desk with an inscrutable expression.

"Shisui, I need your report," he said seriously, looking as if he had aged fifty more years within the span of an hour.

"Hokage-sama," he grunted, leaning onto Itachi's shoulder. "Near sunset, I was approached by Danzō regarding my plans for the clan. He claimed that even with my interference, the old bitterness would never wash away, and the only way to save Konoha was for complete extermination. He asked if I was going to put him under the genjutsu as well, lamenting about the fact that my eyes were not being used to their proper potential. He… he then attempted to steal my eyes, and revealed under the bandages that he already had a Sharingan of his own. He activated one of our forbidden jutsus to forcibly steal my right eye—" all eyes suddenly flickered to his face "—and was about to steal the other when I was caught at the other end of a powerful substitution jutsu."

"Your right eye was _taken_?" Sarutobi frowned in obvious confusion.

"In that moment, yes," he nodded firmly. "I was transported a street down from Danzō, and I took the opportunity to escape, knowing he would send Root after me for my remaining eye. I went and hid inside the forest by the Uchiha compound, until I was discovered by an Anbu."

"Who?" he asked immediately.

Shisui hesitated. "I… I don't know, Hokage-sama. The mask was devoid of any coloring and the agent couldn't have been older than ten by physical proportions. The Anbu told me that Danzō was dead, and he was here to help me. He returned my right eye and preformed the transplant, leaving without a trace once he sensed taichō and the rest."

The Hokage went very still, and for a moment, nothing was said. "I do not have any Anbu in my guard that young. A root member?"

He shook his head. "He supposedly killed Danzō himself and told me not to mourn his death."

"And no obvious affect of a henge being used?"

"Not that my eyes could sense. He was as he appeared—undoubtedly young, short nondescript brown hair and a blank white mask."

The room suddenly seemed to get colder. "This is a very serious matter. An unknown shinobi is on the loose, killed Danzō —whose corpse is yet to be found—completely upturned the sealing inside his office—we're talking about an s-class shinobi. Is there anything else to consider about this Anbu?"

Shisui swallowed, finding it harder to breathe every moment. He really needed his left lung checked. "Hokage-sama, with all due respect, I don't believe that this person is Konoha's enemy."

"And where does this confidence come from?"

"He told me that I have a duty to Konoha, to trust in its shinobi and avoid war at all costs. I can't explain it properly, but the feeling I got from this person was not that of an enemy."

"He killed Danzō."

Shisui felt his blood rush with anger. "And Danzō nearly killed me in his selfish conquest for power."

Sarutobi sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I understand. Go get checked into the hospital. We will discuss this at a later time."

"Hai, Hokage-sama."

.

* * *

.

"Naruto!"

A blonde boy turned around at the voice, blue eyes practically gleaming. He ran towards her, waving his had wildly in the air.

"Sakura-chan!" he grinned. "You're late!"

"Almost," she countered slyly. "Did you wait long?"

He shook his head. "Nu-uh. I was practicing climbing the tree like you told me!"

Noting the multiple scratches and leaves scattered over his hair, she smiled. He was getting better every day. "I brought food, come on, sit down."

Without complaint, Naruto squatted down next to her on their makeshift picnic blanket, grabbing the bento box with unrestrained glee. "Ehe, thanks, Sakura-chan!"

"Where's Sasuke today?" she asked, glancing around the training ground where she usually met her boys.

Naruto shrugged. "Dunno. Teme said something about clan business and left early. That's okay though, I get more of Sakura-chan's food!"

She smiled. "If you honestly thought I was going to let you eat ramen everyday for the rest of your life, you're sorely mistaken."

"But ramen is the best!"

She gave him a look. "You need proper nutrients, Naruto. When you become Hokage, how're you going to run Konoha on ramen alone? You've seen how much paperwork is on that desk."

Naruto suddenly paled, chopsticks limp in his mouth. "You'll, um, help me with the paperwork, right?"

She stared unblinkingly.

"Please? I hate reading!"

She grinned. "You'll have to sacrifice in order to be Hokage."

She could have sworn Naruto's eyes began to water with the thought of atrocious paperwork, but a cheek splitting smile soon overtook his face. "I'll just run Konoha as a paperless village! So no paperwork at all—we can save the trees!"

It was possible. Maybe if all their data could be stored digitally, but Sakura knew the dream was still a far reality.

Before she could respond, a familiar voice interrupted their time.

"Look it's forehead girl! And the freak!" There was a round of giggles and three girls sauntered towards their training ground, chins high in the air.

Sakura wanted to sigh. This was one thing she didn't miss about her childhood. Since her return, Sakura had ignored her bullies, not giving them the satisfaction of getting under her skin. In fact, it was more annoying than hurtful, especially now that she could simply walk away.

But the girls had never caught her with Naruto before.

One glance at blonde's suddenly defensive expression and she knew she wasn't going to let this go. Call her names? Fine. But call her future Hokage a freak? That was not okay.

"Get a life, Ami."

The purple haired girl spluttered slightly, eyes blazing. "What was that? Just because you're trying to make yourself look better doesn't make you anything!"

"Are you deaf?" she prompted, watching the girl's face turn an ugly shade of red. "I said get a life. You obviously need one if this is what you do with your time."

"You're just a stupid forehead girl!" Ami screeched. "Of course you'd hang out with this _freak_ since no one else will play with you."

A deafening silence filled the air as Sakura froze, her eyes unblinking. A trickle of killing intent slipped past her and by the look of Naruto's face, she knew he felt it.

"S-Sakura-chan, it's fine, just—"

"No," she said firmly, getting to her feet. "It's not fine."

At any other situation, Sakura would never have let such a low taunt raise her temper. But this was for Naruto. She had seen this time around how much he struggled everyday to live, to be treated like a _normal human being,_ and anger rose up in the pit of her stomach.

No. This wasn't okay.

"What?" Kasumi, one of the girls behind Ami suddenly stuttered. "You—you wanna fight? Ami will beat you down you know!"

Sakura wasn't listening, her gaze unwavering at the girl in front. "Apologize to Naruto. _Now._ "

Ami scoffed. "Why? It's not like it isn't true! Everyone says he's a freak and a monster!"

"Take that back," she growled, voice dangerously low. "You have no idea what you're talking about."

"And you're just a loser too!" Ami retorted hand swinging. "Look at this giant forehead!"

"Hey! Leave Sakura-chan alone!"

Ami's hand came flying towards her face and Sakura immediately recognized this habit. While being bullied, Ami would often smack her forehead and laugh about how much space was still showing around her hand. Back then; it was the cruelest thing Sakura had ever endured, but now…

Her own hand came up with a snap, catching Ami's wrist in a dead lock. The girl faltered.

She had to tread carefully. Sakura knew everything she did with Naruto next to her would somehow make its way to the Hokage's ears. Besides, the Anbu guarding Naruto was also watching.

"L-Let go of me!" she cried, trying to pry her iron grip off.

She glared. "Apologize."

Ami turned red again, anger clouding her eyes. With her other hand tightened into a fist, she swung wildly. "Get off me you stupid—"

Sakura caught the slow and sloppy fist easily, eyes narrowing. Enough was enough. Feeling the delicate side of Ami's wrist, she forced down a tank of pressure, resulting in a loud crack as her wrist broke.

Ami screamed, contorting her body to try and somehow shield herself from the pain. Kasumi and Fuki seemed horrified behind her, faces paling.

"Apologize to Naruto," she said coldly.

"I—I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm—"

Sakura released both of her hands, causing Ami to crash onto her back and cradle her wrist with tears.

"Get out of here," she glared at the other two girls. "Don't come back unless you have something nice to say."

The girls immediately ran, dragging along a sobbing Ami through the training ground. After a moment, the field was silent once more.

"Sakura… chan?"

She spun around, hand rubbing the back of her neck as a sheepish grin formed on her face. "Ehe, sorry about that Naruto. They aren't very nice are they?"

Naruto, who had got to his feet sometime during the confrontation, charged her with a ramming hug, burying his face into her shirt. Sakura immediately obliged, understanding him without words.

"Thanks, Sakura-chan," he mumbled. "I don't know what I did to have you as my friend."

Her heart clenched.

"Naruto. That would be _my_ line."

.

* * *

.

"And then, and then, her hand went _whoosh_ and there was a _snap_ and Sakura taught that mean girl a lesson! They ran away and Sakura just stood there, like, like, staring off as they ran and, yeah, it was so _cool_!" Naruto concluded, hand waving and all, stopping in a pose.

Sarutobi chuckled, watching as Minato's son pulled on an impressively intimidating expression, glaring at invisible bullies. It was the second time hearing the story as the respective Anbu already reported the situation the day before.

He had heard about this Sakura since Naruto's first day at the Academy. She was the first to befriend him in class, treating him with kindness and attention that Naruto undoubtedly craved his entire life. At first, he had been suspicious of the little girl—as was the way of a shinobi—but after extensive tailing and observation of her, he deduced that she was simply a child from a clanless background who happened to have a heart of gold. She was Naruto's godsend.

"And then, I, um, hugged her really, really hard because Sakura-chan is so nice," Naruto ended sheepishly, face reddening.

"I'm glad you had fun, Naruto," he said sincerely. "Is she still teaching you things?"

He perked up, blue eyes ablaze. "Yeah! She taught Sasuke-teme and I how to walk on trees and I've been practicing really hard, Jiji! She said it's a skill I need before I become the Hokage."

He had of course, known already that Naruto was getting pointers and tips from his rosette haired friend, but the stories were always much more pleasant to hear from his perspective.

"You said she reads a lot at the library, hm?"

Naruto nodded, blonde bangs jumping at the moment. "She spends _so_ much time in there, Jiji! I don't know why—reading is boring."

"Reading is important, Naruto," he said gently. "You can learn a lot from reading books and scrolls from the past. Besides, when you become Hokage, you'll have to do tons of reading."

"No!" Naruto yelled, putting his hands over his ears. "Sakura-chan said she'll help me with the paperwork! Wait, did she? Ack, I don't remember! Wait, no! I said I'll make Konoha a paperless village when I'm Hokage! See? No reading needed!"

Amusement bubbled in his chest as he watched the young boy scrunch in thought. "Sorry, Naruto. But unless you revamp the entire Shinobi mission system, or we run out of trees, you're stuck with paperwork."

He wilted. "All right. But since Sakura-chan said she'll be my biggest supporter, I think I can handle the paperwork."

Sarutobi smiled. He really did appreciate this girl.

.

* * *

.

Sakura sat cross-legged in the confines of her room, stretching her senses in deep meditation. It was one Kakashi had passed down to her during their time together, which pushed and pulled the limits of her chakra reserves.

She never knew her old sensei was born with average chakra levels, especially for a Shinobi so dedicated to ninjutsu. He had given her his meditative process that allowed the senses to be used beyond normal capabilities, almost like opening chakra gates. It was an incredibly strenuous ordeal, and by the time she was done, Sakura's system felt like a well in the Suna desert, completely and utterly empty. It could only be done once a week but results were staring to show from three years of constant practice.

Panting in exhaustion, Sakura lied on the cold wooden floor, staring at the ceiling above her.

It had been a week since she saved Uchiha Shisui's life, and to her utter gratefulness, the clan was still alive. There were no signs that his mass genjutsu over the clan had been completed, but Sakura supposed it had been carried out in a completely classified and secretive manner. Konoha was never going to come forth with the truth of Uchiha's attempted rebellion anyway.

She shuddered at the sudden thought, grateful that Shisui's particular eye technique could only be used once a decade. It would have been an incredibly dangerous and misuse of power if it stayed in Danzō's hand. No wonder her future had turned out like it did.

If Shisui had completed his end of plan like Sakura had requested, saving the Uchiha clan, she needed to move on to the next part of the plan.

Akatsuki.

Bringing up memories of her conversation with Jiraiya and Obito, Sakura went through the timeline once more in her head, analyzing all the critical points.

It was a shame, but Akatsuki was no longer the peace striving group in Ame under the hand of Yahiko. Danzō had played his part before his death, leaving the group in Nagato's hands who turned it into a Bijū hunting criminal organization.

Damn him. Danzō was ruining her spirit even in death.

Sighing, she concentrated once more. As of now, the members of Akatsuki were Nagato, Konan, Kakuzu, Hidan, Sasori, Orochimaru, Kisame, Uchiha Obito, and Zetsu. She grimaced at the last thought, mind spinning. Kaguya's will—the unexpected mastermind of Akatsuki all along. He had been originally sealed away by Naruto and Sasuke's Chibaku Tensei, but that meant having to wait until Kaguya was unleashed and the Infinite Tsukuyomi was implemented. No… she couldn't wait that long. She needed to find another way of sealing the bastard herself.

And according to Itachi, Deidara didn't join until after Orochimaru had defected once he failed to use Itachi as his new vessel. Now that Itachi was to remain a Konoha Shinobi, would Orochimaru defect at all? Would he still attempt to invade Konoha?

Rubbing the bridge of her nose, Sakura groaned, finding a headache coming forth. Every change she made to the past would make her knowledge of the future less and less reliable. In the end, she could only trust in her instincts.

A sudden thought fleeted through her mind and she snapped her eyes awake, unable to believe she had nearly forgotten.

Uchiha Obito was coming to Konoha.

She knew it was the night of the massacre; he had aided Itachi in exchange for the latter to join Akatsuki. Now that the situation was under tight control, what would Obito do? Massacre the clan himself? At this moment, Sakura didn't have Kakashi to snap his teammate out of it, or have Naruto to inspire the long lost boy once again in protecting Konoha.

He was her enemy right now, not the apologetic man she had talked to through Edo Tensei.

Biting her thumb, she slammed it down on her wooden floor, pouring out a small leak of chakra left in her system.

 _Kuchiyose no Jutsu!_

Sei and Mika poofed into existence, the latter looking up at her questioningly. "So soon Sakura-chan? Did your intervention no go as planned?"

She shook her head. "I've overlooked something possibly problematic. Uchiha Obito is due for a visit to Konoha soon. I know Itachi will be the one to find him, but now that the coup has settled, we don't know how it'll play out. Every precaution is necessary."

The two lizards nodded their small heads. "We'll spread the word. The moment he comes in Konoha territory, we'll let you know."

She breathed in relief. "Thank you both."

With another poof, they were gone.

With all her chakra spent, Sakura collapsed back onto the floor, not bothering to climb onto her bed and closed her eyes, allowing sleep to take her.

When a second week went by, Obito finally made his appearance.

Well into the night, a surge of chakra jolted Sakura awake as she turned to see Sei appear on her nightstand.

"He's here," the lizard said quietly, minding her guest. "Just past the Konoha borders and heading towards the Uchiha compound."

Cursing under her breath, Sakura slipped out of bed, careful not to wake the blonde haired boy who was snoring away on the other side of the bed. Out of all the days Sakura invited him to a sleepover, Obito _had_ to come tonight.

With a single hand seal, a clone flickered into existence.

Quickly reaching into her drawer and pulling out a familiar scroll, she gave it a swipe of her blood and chakra, unsealing her Anbu uniform.

"How fast is he moving?" she asked, slipping on every piece in a mechanical speed of practice.

"He doesn't appear to be in any hurry. He's moving very cautiously."

A small sense of relief rushed through her chest as her clone popped open a jar of powdery hair dye, smearing it all over her locks. Thank god her hair had been cut boyishly short.

After a few more seconds of silent movement, Sakura stood in her gear, holding out her hand for Sei to climb. She looked towards her clone.

"Take care of Naruto."

"Of course."

Nodding in satisfaction as the clone slipped back under the blanket, Sakura glanced at Sei's perch on her shoulder, receiving a nod in return. Focusing on Mika's seal, Sakura flashed out of the room.

She landed softly onto the forest soil, immediately cloaking her chakra and heartbeat. Mika jumped from his position on the trunk of a tree, amber eyes blinking at her.

"Fifty meters west, Sakura-chan. He'll reach the outskirts of the Uchiha compound in less than five minutes."

She exhaled. "Thank you."

"Stay safe," he muttered, before both lizards poofed out of existence.

Making no more room for hesitation, Sakura bound westward, concealing all noise with chakra. Not three minutes later, a kunai came flying straight at her face.

She dodged, bringing out her own kunai as a large figure appeared in front of her, sword in hand. Metal clashed loudly as Sakura pumped chakra into her blade for extra strength. She knew with this body and age, there was no way she could hold him off on sheer physical power.

"Your ability to hide your presence is far better than what I've seen in other Konoha Anbu, I'll praise you for that," Obito said through his mask, voice muffled and low. "Even your chakra signature in indecipherable… But you underestimate me, coming on your own."

Metal ricocheted off each other as both jumped back after the third blow, landing on opposite sides of the forest. They were so close to the Uchiha compound, Sakura wondered if the brief fight was sensed.

"Why are you here?" she asked, already knowing part of the truth. But this was a different timeline and different circumstances. She couldn't take the chance. She had promised that much at least.

"That," he answered, drawing out the word, "is none of your concern, seeing as you will be dead. My time here is not for you."

Sakura braced herself, her sharp mind flowing through dozens of different outcomes. She knew the ins and outs of Obito's techniques—he had told her himself—but that didn't make him any less dangerous at this moment.

"Possible harm to Konoha concerns me at all levels," she replied evenly. "And you are it."

She dashed at him, kunai raised to strike him blow for blow. Much as she was expecting, her arm and entire body sailed straight through him.

" _Listen," Obito's eyes sharpened, the black sclera of Edo Tensei making his gaze intimidating. "My intangibility and teleportation cannot be used at the same time. Especially during the early years of Akatsuki, it will be the technique I heavily rely on. The moment I attack, I have to be solid. That is when you can stop me. That, Sakura, is where you can exploit my weakness."_

She gritted her teeth, knowing the outcome already. She needed the physical contact, and there was no way she could out speed him at her current skill like Naruto's father had done. She had to sacrifice an injury.

His sword came swinging in from behind her, driving straight towards her heart. Instead of dodging, Sakura tilted ever so slightly, reaching out with her hand.

His sword plunged into her side, its hilt imbedding itself against her skin. In the same moment, her hand grabbed his wrist, sending a seal to mark his hand. A large black symbol bloomed under her touch, and Obito immediately yanked his arm back, taking the sword with it. Blood split from her wound like a faucet, and she immediately sent chakra to heal the hole.

Both Shinobi staggered backwards, Sakura nearly losing footing from the immense pain. She couldn't breathe properly.

"Sealing," Obito hissed, staring at the mark.

It was a small black circle with a spiral in the center, equally split in half by a thick line passing vertically through it. It was a seal that embodied her team. The outer circle represented her clan, the spiral for Naruto, and the line for Sasuke. Kakashi had been the one to draw it out.

"Surprise," she gritted through her teeth, smiling behind the mask even though he couldn't see it.

She flashed towards him, feeling the tug of the seal. Obviously cautious about what the seal did, Obito moved on the defensive. They traded blow for blow, and the trees around them began to bend with the sheer amount of chakra in the air.

At her eighth attack, Sakura called chakra to her left fist, feinting with her right. As his sword lashed out in an attempt to bisect her at the wait, Sakura vanished, reappearing above his head. He was an extremely fast reactor, but not quite enough. Her fist pummeled into his left shoulder, undoubtedly tearing it out of its socket and fracturing the bone. Obito staggered and teleported away with kamui, appeared a dozen meters behind her.

" _Hiraishin_ ," he spat, obviously recognizing the technique. "For a brat like you to learn the Yondaime's signature move—I'll admit it's impressive, but it's not enough."

 _Of course it's impressive. All of you guys helped me perfect it._

He swung at her, a barrage of different weapons flying out from his sleeve—undoubtedly from his kamui dimension—and she flashed away, landing a hundred feet back.

There was a flicker and Obito appeared behind her back, sword swinging down with incredible speed. She flashed away again, but he followed just as easily. Sakura led him on a chase, countering when she could and dodging when impossible.

She knew she couldn't continue this forever. Her chakra was draining, and her smaller body simply couldn't keep up with his fully developed one.

Before she could flicker away again, her injury tore open at the sharp moment, and she faltered, her left knee hitting the thick branch she stood on.

This was very bad.

The glittering metal of his sword came flying down, and before it could strike her, a clash echoed in her ears as two swords collided.

Shocked, her eyes darted left, seeing none other than Uchiha Itachi parrying Obito's blow, Sharingan blazing.

She hadn't even sensed him coming.

Either she was really disoriented, or Itachi was that good. She concluded it was a mix of both.

Obito leaped back to create distance between them, lowering his sword.

"Uchiha Itachi," he drawled. "I should have expected. Do you know who I am?"

For a while, he said nothing, opting to observe. "You claim to be Uchiha Madara."

If she didn't know better, Sakura would have agreed. Obito had grown his hair out so it resembled his ancestor's, and a Sharingan spun behind the open hole of his flaming mask.

"I _am_ Uchiha Madara," he said firmly, and Sakura wondered how many times he had practiced saying that. "From this Konoha that turned their backs on me. One I will surely destroy using the unrest of my forsaken clan."

Itachi stiffened. "The coup has been neutralized. There will be no conflict."

Clearly not having known that news, the elder Uchiha froze.

"A deep shame," Obito said. "This village is wasting away with the clan."

"Changes are in order," Itachi said with confidence. "We will all protect Konoha as one."

After another silent moment, Obito seemed to retreat. It wasn't wise to try and taken on an entire village, even if he was incredibly powerful. "So quickly to forget the hatred of eight years ago. Very well. But this is far from the end; remember that little Uchiha. There will always be war on the horizon."

With a distorted swirl of his left Sharingan, Obito vanished with his kamui.

Sakura released a bated breath, having taken their brief conversation to clot her injury once more; she looked up, finding Itachi's eyes on her.

She quickly stared at the point between his eyes.

There was no way she was going to get into a conflict with Itachi and come out alive, especially in her state. He might not have activated his Mangekyō Sharingan due to Shisui's continued existence, but it didn't make him any less formidable.

"You are the Anbu that saved Shisui's life," Itachi said at last. His kunai was still clutched in hand, and his body was tense, ready to move if necessary.

She collected her thoughts. "Life is an overestimation, Itachi-san. I merely returned what was originally his."

"Who are you?"

"A shinobi of Konoha," she said earnestly. "That much I can tell you. Thank you for helping me."

He went silent for another moment before responding. "There is a warrant for your capture. Hokage-sama would like to see you."

 _Of course there was_. She didn't expect to murder a high councilman and get away with it easily. She had to leave, now.

"I'm afraid I cannot follow you," she replied softly.

Suddenly, both shinobi moved, their forms bolting to life. Itachi's hand lashed out to grab her, and she felt the familiar tug of chakra as she focused on the seal in her room. Right before his hand was about to reach her, Sakura flashed out of the forest.

She landed uncoordinatedly in her room, the injury still burning in her chest. She was breathing harshly, one lung unable to completely do its job.

Her clone immediately woke up at the noise, sliding out from the bed. Wordlessly, she dispelled herself, and Sakura felt the unused chakra merge back in her system with relief.

Grabbing the storage scroll she trudged herself over to the bathroom, needing a sincere wash from all the blood that had drained from her.

She was definitely going to skip out on Academy tomorrow, that was for sure.

.

* * *

.

There was something to be said when Itachi came home from a mission two years ago to find Sasuke absent.

Which never happened.

His little brother, without fail, would always be at home waiting for his return, eager to ask for training. No matter how many times Itachi had denied him, he continued to press the matter.

"Itachi, you're back."

He turned to face his mother, nodding in greeting. "Where's Sasuke?"

Her expression changed into one of amusement and Itachi nearly frowned. "Probably out training."

She was baiting him, and he knew it. Giving in to her demands, he asked, "Alone?"

Her eyes sparkled with mischief. "Ah, you weren't here to see it, but two weeks ago, Sasuke was carried home unconscious on the back of a little girl."

Something in his stomach immediately tightened at the thought.

"Nothing bad, Itachi," Mikoto said with a little too much glee. "Sasuke had simply worn himself out to exhaustion while fighting her. They apparently made a bet that if he won, she would acknowledge that he was better than her, and if she won, Sasuke would have to train with them."

Itachi processed his mother's words in his mind, recalling that Sasuke had just started the Academy six months ago. There was surprise in this thought as he had assumed Sasuke to be the best in his class.

"Who are they?"

"Her name is Haruno Sakura, and her friend… Uzumaki Naruto."

The girl's name did nothing to spark recognition in his mind but the latter was a name that all Anbu knew.

The Kyūbi container.

"She defeated Sasuke?" he wondered out loud.

Mikoto smiled. "Fair and square. You should have seen your brother when he woke up the next morning. He went out training declaring that he was never going to be defeated by pink haired girls ever again. He's been training with them every day after the Academy gets out."

His lips tugged up into a small smile. "Where?"

"Training Ground Three. Why don't you go pick him up for dinner, Itachi?"

It was already on his mind.

Heading to his room, he removed his mission pack and changed into a clean set of clothes for the day, curiosity tingling his mind as he moved mechanically.

As he bid a temporary farewell to his mother, Itachi leaped to the roofs, heading towards Training Ground Three.

Within minutes, he neared the river that flowed through the field and landed softly on top of the water. With silent steps, he made his way towards the open area, already hearing voices pierce the air, his brother's being one of them.

"Get him, Sakura-chan! Sasuke-teme you'll lose!"

A grunt. "Shut up, dobe! Do I need to beat your face down again?"

"Hey! You were lucky! I can totally beat you tomorrow!"

Itachi peered from the end of river, partially covered by the surrounding trees. Uzumaki Naruto sat cross-legged at the base of a large tree, wildly moving his hands and shouting cheers to the two people currently sparring in the middle of the field.

His eyes moved to Sasuke first, surprised to find the boy sweating deeply, looking disheveled and dirty with scrapes all over his skin. His sparring partner however, looked completely unfazed.

As his mother had said, the girl had a head of bright coral hair that was cut shortly, even shorter than Sasuke's. Her green eyes were focused on the opponent before her, but her lips were twisted into a grin.

She moved fluidly, much more gracefully than his own little brother, stepping around Sasuke's attacks and countering like a dance.

She was _good._ He could understand how Sasuke had lost.

"Ah! Who are you!"

He turned his head at Naruto's voice, catching the attention of the other two in the field.

Sasuke's eyes brightened, halting his steps. "Aniki!"

The girl on the other hand had no reclusions to stopping and swung her leg in a perfectly executed sweep, knocking Sasuke onto his back with a surprised grunt.

"Sakura, you cheater! I was distracted!"

She grinned, chest rising with adrenaline. "A Shinobi must make use of every opportunity, you know? It's not my fault you have the attention span of a spoon."

Itachi's lips threatened to quirk up, but he held back his amusement. "She's right Sasuke. Accept your loss gracefully."

He whined pitifully before getting to his feet. "Why're you here, aniki?"

"Kaa-san said to bring you before you forget about dinner," he replied easily.

"I wasn't going to forget!" he protested. "I was just about to beat Sakura—"

"Yeah right, teme!" Naruto yelled, now on his feet as well.

Before Sasuke could make his furious retort, Itachi cut in. He had never seen his brother so riled up before. "Sasuke. Why don't you introduce me to your friends?"

His scowl didn't lessen as he jabbed a thumb towards Naruto. "That's the dobe, Naruto. And that's Sakura. They're… they're my classmates. Dobe, Sakura, this is my aniki, Itachi."

Naruto shouted a loud 'hey!' in response while Sakura just sighed, rubbing her forehead.

Unable to bite back his smile, he ruffled the dirt out of Sasuke's hair. "I'm glad you found good friends, Sasuke."

His immediately went beet red at the word, knowing it was something Sasuke never used. Itachi knew his little brother. Knew that he had no friends his age outside of the clan.

But it looks like his friends had found him.

"It's nice to meet you Itachi-san," Sakura said, a warm smile on her face. "Forgive me for beating your brother into the ground. He had it coming."

"Sakura!" Sasuke yelled, face still red.

She laughed. "I only speak the truth, Sasuke- _chan_ , now come here."

Sasuke looked as if he was going to protest, but after a resigned sigh, he walked towards the girl, sticking out his left arm.

Itachi watched with surprise as Sakura placed her palm over a scrape on his forearm, hand glowing green. After a moment of concentration, the injury lessened.

It was apparently a well-practiced habit of theirs as Sasuke wordlessly presented injury after injury, and Sakura healed them away. He could tell her technique wasn't perfect by any means, but it was an impressive start for a child her age. A new sense of curiosity formed in his mind as he watched her work efficiently, no hesitation in her movements. He knew the art of healing was a difficult and strenuous practice that required near perfect chakra control.

"Sakura-san, where did you learn how to heal like that?"

She jolted out of concentrated, eyes suddenly wide. After a moment, she grinned sheepishly. "Um, my kaa-san taught me when I told her I wanted to be a medic-nin. I'm not as good as her yet but I can fix small scrapes."

"Yeah cause she's been practicing a lot on teme and me!" Naruto said cheerily.

Itachi processed her words, imprinting them in his memory. "You don't come from a shinobi clan do you?"

She shook her head. "My kaa-san is a medic in the hospital, and my tou-san is a civilian."

 _Interesting._

Once Sakura was done healing him, Sasuke grunted, muttering a 'thank you' under his breath, as he pulled his shirt back on.

"Ready to go?" he asked.

Sasuke nodded, jumping to his side. He turned back to his classmates, a small smile on his face.

"See you tomorrow, Sasuke!" Sakura waved, taking the words from his mouth.

"Yeah, teme," Naruto cut in, arms crossed. "I'll beat you tomorrow you hear?"

His smile turned into a smirk as he looked towards the blonde. "Yeah right. Bye dobe. Go do your homework."

Naruto's shouts of protests echoed through the field as Itachi walked his little brother back towards the compound, glancing at his smile that stayed on his face all the way back home.

.

* * *

.

Sakura stared at the large Memorial Stone in front of her, feeling the gentle caress of the breeze trail against her skin.

It was a rare moment of alone time as nether Naruto nor Sasuke were with her. Naruto was off eating ramen with Iruka-sensei—a connection she did _not_ want to step between by being there—and Sasuke was off with his clan, attending their monthly meetings.

The Uchiha clan was still alive.

Two years after saving Uchiha Shisui, Sakura allowed herself a moment of self-praise, understanding that she had successfully diverted the massacre. As Itachi had said, changes had been made between the villages and the clan. The Uchihas were no longer forced to live in a certain sector of the village of their compound for surveillance, and many of the lesser members spread throughout Konoha. The Military Police Force was unofficially disbanded, giving more missions to Uchiha shinobi, and allowing them true access to climb the ranks.

Sakura hadn't realized how restricted the Uchiha clan was until their limits began to lift. It was no wonder Fugaku and the rest of the elders were easily poisoned into planning rebellion.

So far, Shisui's genjutsu had done wonders. He quite literally saved his entire clan. And now that the Hokage knew with absolute conviction that the Uchiha's first priority was Konoha—a sense of peace was returning to the village once again.

It was a vile situation when Sakura continued to think about it, but she couldn't do much about it anymore. She had a choice between Konoha and the Uchiha clan, and her choice was clear, no matter the outcome.

Yet, while peace was returning to Konoha, Akatsuki was moving in the shadows. She gritted her teeth. She was still developing a seal that could lock away Zetsu, but it was a tedious and difficult process. But once Zetsu was out of the way, Kaguya's revival would be put to a halt.

Next was Madara. According to Obito, he was truly dead at the moment but would be resurrected at the time the Ten Tails was revived. She couldn't have this either—meaning, Kabuto had to be killed as soon as possible.

She narrowed her eyes at the thought of Orochimaru's right hand, wondering what he was doing at the moment. She had never seen him around in the streets of Konoha, but the man was a slippery bastard to start with. She needed to take him out early.

None of the other Akatsuki members were a large threat at the moment other than Orochimaru. His possible invasion of Konoha was only two years away and Sakura was itching to figure out his method. Otogakure was Orochimaru's main force along with Suna, but the village was founded after his defection from Akatsuki. Had he left yet? Was he still planning his invasion?

She exhaled, focusing on the Memorial Stone once more.

Her fingers traced invisible names that were not yet carved into the stone; inwardly swearing that if her time here meant anything at all, none of the names she remembered would be placed there.

She spotted the name of _Uchiha Obito_ next to the many that died during the Third War, and traced over his name in careful strokes. She had promised him too.

The following week, Orochimaru's answer came to her.

Sakura was in the process of a strenuous warm up with Naruto, who was complaining about all the silly little countries they had to memorize for tomorrow's test.

Stretching out her leg muscles, she reached forward and sent a pulse of chakra to her seal weights, increasing their mass.

A loud rustle of noise came from her right and Sakura glanced up to see Sasuke burst from the trees. Her greeting died in her throat as she saw his panicked expression.

"Sasuke? What happened?"

Her tone immediately alerted Naruto who was in the middle of doing a backstretch, and promptly fell over trying to see Sasuke.

He was breathing rapidly. "A-Aniki just came back. He's really badly injured, and… and they said they don't know if Shisui will live either."

"What?" Naruto harped, getting to his feet.

To Sakura's shock, Sasuke looked as if he was close to crying. Never in this timeline for as long as she's known him had she seen such a vulnerable expression on his face.

Without the massacre, this was his first experience with the idea of death to those near to him. He looked close to hyperventilating.

"Breathe, Sasuke," she commanded firmly, taking both his hands. "Inhale… exhale…"

When his panic attack seemed to even out, Sasuke tried to school his features. "Kaa-san said to stay home, but… I just… what do I do?"

The ten-year-old boy took in a huge breath, undoubtedly holding back a mountain of tears. Itachi meant that much to him.

"Let's go see him," Sakura said without hesitation. "We can wait in the hospital."

He looked wary. "But Kaa-san said to stay—"

"Do you, or do you not want to see your brother?" she asked. "I'm sure Itachi-san would get better faster if he knew you were waiting for him."

Sakura knew that Sasuke was a clan child through and through. He probably never went against his parents' orders so blatantly—they'd have his head. This was the ultimate decision. His parents… or Itachi?

At last, Sasuke nodded. "I want to go see him."

She smiled. "Let's go."

"Ne, Sasuke, didn't you say that your brother was like, super strong?" Naruto asked, walking next to him. "Hospitals can't hold him down!"

His dark eyes softened a fraction as he nodded, and Sakura felt something warm fill her chest. This is what Team 7 should have lived up to be.

Sakura led the two towards the largest square building in the center of the village, walking through the double doors. Sasuke's steps seemed to stiffen considerably, and Naruto just looked around the place in awe.

Walking straight up to the front desk, she placed both hands over the counter. The lady there seemed surprised for a moment before giving the three of them an odd stare. Without their hitai-ate, they just looked like normal civilian children without their parents.

"Can I help you?"

"We're looking for Uchiha Itachi and Uchiha Shisui's rooms. We want to visit," she said firmly.

She flipped through her papers before answering. "I'm afraid not. Only family at this moment."

"Itachi is my brother," Sasuke said defiantly, glaring at the lady. He flashed the clan symbol on his shirt. "And they're with me. Where _is he_?"

Looking thoroughly startled, she stammered out the room numbers. Sakura wasted no more time with the desk lady and headed deeper into the building with Naruto and Sasuke right behind her.

They climbed up to the topmost floor where Sakura knew the hospital kept all their emergency Shinobi patients, and walked towards a nondescript white door near the middle of the hallway, noting that Shisui was a room down.

Sasuke took a sharp breath from behind her as she gripped the door and slid it open.

The room was slightly darkened with the curtains closed, but Sakura could clearly see Sasuke's parents rising to their feet in surprise.

"Sakura-chan? Wha—Sasuke?" she frowned. "I told you to stay home, why are you here?"

"I wanted to see aniki too!" he defended, clenching his fists. "I couldn't just stay home."

Fugaku looked disappointed. "Sasuke, I will not accept such disobedience—"

"It was my idea, Uchiha-san," she said, taking a small step in front of Sasuke. "The blame is not Sasuke's to bear."

Fugaku looked as if he wanted to give a nasty retort when Mikoto just sighed, raising her hands in a sign of peace.

"It's okay, Sakura-chan. No one is to blame," she said, and then turned to Sasuke. "I just didn't want you to see your brother like this. I thought it would be better for you to see him when he wakes up."

"When will he?" he blurted.

"The nurse said he should be awake in a few days, Sasuke," she replied, gently taking her son in her arms. "He just got out of a long surgery."

Sasuke nodded glumly, letting Mikoto hug him. "What about Shisui?"

Both adults stiffened ever so slightly. Fugaku continued to glare at the wall as if did him some personal offence and Mikoto sighed once more.

"We still don't know. Shisui's in a coma right now and no one knows if he'll be able to wake up. He was in a bad state when he got here."

Sasuke didn't respond, and Sakura took this as her cue to take her leave. She was invading a personal family moment no matter how much Mikoto seemed to like her.

"Naruto and I will head out," she said softly, taking the blonde hand. He had been uncharacteristically silent the entire time. "I hope Itachi-san wakes up and recovers soon."

"Thank you, Sakura-chan, and Naruto-chan," Mikoto smiled warmly. "Take care of yourselves."

Nodding once more, Sakura led him out of the room, and quietly slid the door shut behind her.

"You've been so quiet, Naruto," she said, giving him an odd look. "Are you all right?"

This was probably his first experience with death too, even if it was through Sasuke's family.

He grumbled. "Nothin'. I was just thinking about how many strong people are outside of Konoha… to be able to do this to Sasuke-teme's brother."

That was unexpected. "Does it scare you?"

He clenched his fist before thumping it on his chest. "No way, Sakura-chan! I'm gonna get super strong too, I promised! I gotta be Hokage and protect Konoha!"

She ruffled his hair. "I have no doubt that you will. Now come on. I want to make one more stop before we leave."

"Eh? Where?"

Sakura walked down a room to where Shisui was supposed to be, placing a hand on the door. She sent out a wave of chakra to make sure no one but Shisui was in the room. Satisfied that it was empty, she grabbed the door and entered.

"We're visiting Sasuke's cousin?" Naruto asked.

"Just for a second," she said carefully. "I just want to see if he's okay too. He's also important to Sasuke."

Naruto grunted.

Sakura waked over to the bed where Shisui lay, his face a picture of perfect calm. His skin was paler than usual, and she was itching to lay a diagnostic jutsu on him. She knew that before Tsunade came and revamped the entire hospital, many of the medics were poorly trained. Could she try?

She was finally acquainted with Shisui via Sasuke and Itachi, and although she wasn't monumentally close to him, she still cared a great deal about the man she first saved.

Inwardly shaking her head, she squashed down the urge. Not with Naruto in the room.

"He looks sorta sad," Naruto commented.

Sakura's right hand slid underneath the edge of the hospital bed, and she marked the metal with a small Hiraishin seal.

"Yeah," she muttered, discreetly putting her hand down. "Come on. Shall we go?"

Naruto nodded, looking more than eager to get out of the gloomy hospital.

She would wait it out just in case.

.

* * *

.

Four days later, Itachi had woken up and was beginning his road to recovery. Sasuke had been bursting with relief and happiness Sakura thought he smiled more that day than he had in the past year.

Shisui remained the same.

When another two weeks past and there was no change in Shisui's condition, Sasuke's mood began to slowly dip. Apparently, Itachi was starting to grow extremely withdrawn with every day that passed and Sasuke was feeling the brunt of it.

When the month passed, Sakura had enough waiting. She couldn't put it behind her when it was possibly in her capabilities to do something.

As the moon waned in the dead of night, Sakura unsealed her Anbu uniform and prepared to leave, making sure all her supplies were secured before heading out. She hadn't used the particular disguise often, but she had no doubt the order for her capture was still in place.

Taking a deep breath in preparation, Sakura focused on the seal in the hospital and flashed away.

She landed in the hospital room without a sound, immediately regretting the decision. Someone was already by the bed, spinning around with a kunai in hand, eyes shining red.

Mangekyō Red.

Sakura cursed. Out of all the days she could have done this, she managed to run into him. Besides, it was nearly three in the morning—why the hell was Itachi still here?

It's then she realizes that his Mangekyō must have awakened from Shisui's accident.

"Itachi-san," she murmured carefully, lacing her voice with chakra.

"I was waiting," he replied.

Confusion ran through her before she caught on, unable to believe him for a moment. But there was no other explanation.

"You found my seal," she stated, blinking in disbelief. The Sharingan was able to see and discern chakra patterns—including the small amount in her Hiraishin seal. He was with her when she marked Obito's hand two years back, and undoubtedly traced it back to her.

Damn. He was good.

"Yes," he confirmed. "I admit, I wasn't sure of its properties but I knew it was yours."

"Are you here to stop me?"

He seemed to hesitate. "That depends on what you intend to do."

"I find myself unable to stand back and watch when I am capable of doing something," she said honestly. "Wouldn't you agree?"

Silence filled the room.

He lowered his kunai. "Will you help him?"

"I will," she said with unwavering conviction. "Will you trust me?"

He made no hesitation in his response. "I will."

Relief flooded through her system as his stance relaxed. He walked around to Shisui's other side, allowing her the space to work.

Cautiously she approached, pressing a glowing green hand on his chest. "Can you tell me what happened? I don't need the mission details, but I do need circumstances of his injuries."

His expression seemed to darken as he recalled the memory. "We were returning from our mission, when we were ambushed by Orochimaru." Sakura froze, raising her face to meet his. Thankfully, his Sharingan was off. "Our team was already strained and he took advantage of that quite thoroughly, separating us with his three other shinobi."

"Shisui received unknown injuries from his opponent but came to aid me against Orochimaru. He… took an attack that was meant to be my own, which cut through his chest with an unknown black liquid. The bleeding did not stop the entire return, and Shisui said he could not feel or move his body before losing consciousness."

Sakura flickered her eyes to Shisui's forehead, pressing her hand against it. Immediately, she felt the sluggish strain of her chakra trying to move through.

"Poisoned," she immediately said. No wonder he wasn't waking up.

She felt a trickle of worry stab her heart when she realized the sheer amount of it in his brain. Surely, the medics have felt it, but either they couldn't diagnose it correctly, or they didn't dare try an extraction. The brain was an extremely delicate area to heal.

She exhaled. Tsunade wouldn't let this stop her and Sakura had sworn an oath to the woman when she asked for training. She wouldn't give up either.

"Itachi-san," she said hurriedly. "Please get me a large bowl with water. You should find an empty one in the bathroom behind me."

He moved without reply, and Sakura focused on separating the toxins in his brain. Thankfully, it wasn't a deadly one, but one that caused paralysis over time to keep everything shut down.

She grimaced, realizing that it was the perfect method for what Orochimaru needed. In order to take over Itachi's body, a deadly poison was pointless to use. He needed the body alive, but incapacitated.

A tiny incision was made with her chakra scalpel, and she began to extract the poison from his skin. Itachi placed a wide bowl on the stand next to her, quickly moving back to his original position.

The poison was putridly black and thick as it was pulled from his face and into her chakra laced hands, floating in between. She dumped the offending liquid into the bowl, returning for another round.

Again and again she extracted everything she could possibly reach, every movement and fluctuation of chakra carefully measured and calculated. One mistake meant Shisui's brain being ruined forever. It made sense why no sane medic attempted to try it.

When all the poison had been removed, Sakura forced open the flimsy hospital garment, exposing Shisui's chest. There was an ugly scar that marred his skin from left shoulder to hip, and Sakura nearly stopped to scowl at it. She would never have left it to scar like this. Widespread scarring meant lack of feeling, and that equaled to disadvantages for the shinobi during combat.

Reaching into her hip bag she pulled out a scroll, smearing chakra and blood to open the seal. A small palette of ink and a brush fell into her hand, and she snapped the compact shut after swathing a few strokes of black ink.

Steadying her hand, she began to draw the seals needed, sticking to the uninjured side of his chest. She then drew over both arms and up his neck, forcing the seals to meet at the point on his forehead. Satisfied with her work, she placed the brush down, flying through a set of hand seals.

 _Chikatsu Saisei no Jutsu!_

Shisui's entire body began to glow a magnificent green, the black ink of her seals glowing white. With careful and strenuous effort, she forced the damage to heal, coercing his body's natural cells as a medium.

The jutsu was normally done with a rotation of four people due to the long hours required to preform the skill, but she had stabilized the technique to suit her one-man stand. Sakura momentarily recalled Neji being treated with it during their Genin days, and her resolve strengthened.

She would save him.

When what seemed like an hour drew by, a soft groan escaped from Shisui's lips and Sakura felt her chakra redouble in will. Itachi jolted slightly, turning to look at his friend.

"Shisui."

"Not yet, Itachi-san," she spoke through her teeth, feeling the unbelievable strain on her chakra. Half of her written seals have yet to disappear.

She pressed for another hour, circulating her chakra through his system at every loop, filling in all his injuries that the poison had damaged over the month. She had no resources to make a proper antidote, so the only other option was to neutralize the stubborn remains.

When the last of her seals merged and disappeared to the point on his forehead, Sakura released the jutsu, about to fall on her knees. The morning sun was breaking over the horizon, slightly illuminating the room.

She knew she didn't have a lot of time. The first hospital round came at six in the morning, and if she guessed, she didn't even have twenty minutes left. Sakura momentarily spread out her chakra, unable to sense more than the topmost floor in her current state.

No one else. Yet.

Shisui's face suddenly scrunched as another guttural noise passed his lips. To her amazement, his eyes pulled back.

"It… Itachi?" he croaked.

The Uchiha nodded, his eyes wide and more expressive than Sakura had ever seen them.

Shisui grunted again, undoubtedly disoriented from the month long coma. "Wha' happened? Did Orochi—"

"No mission reporting Shisui-san," she interrupted, voice cracking. She needed to get out of here. "I command you to bed rest for the next three days."

He clearly didn't realize that she was there, as his black eyes flickered slowly over to her, shocked.

"You're…" he trailed off, blinking as if in a daze. "Am I dreaming?"

"You might be slightly delirious," she admitted. "Being in a month long coma does that to you. Now please go back to sleep."

His eyes widened, about to ask, as she pressed two fingers to his temple. He went out like a light. It was a useful technique Tsunade had taught her for dealing with stubborn patients, but only worked if their chakra levels were low.

"He'll wake up again in a few hours," she said, pulling back her shaking hand. Kami, she was going to collapse any second. "The medics here will bring him back to health if they're not too incompetent. I will take my leave."

"Thank you," Itachi blurted, his gaze extremely intense. "Thank you for saving him…. Again."

"You saved me long ago, Itachi-san, and I do not forget to repay those who give to me," she replied. "Though, I do have one question."

He waited.

"During your confrontation, was Orochimaru wearing a black cloak with red clouds on it?"

Obviously not having expected such a particular question he blinked. "No."

She nodded, feeling for the Hiraishin seal in her room. "That is all then. Thank you."

In a snap, she vanished from the hospital.

.

* * *

.

"Sakura-chan! Saaakuraaaa-chaaaan!"

"Dobe, shut up! She's probably sick!"

Sakura threw open her door with a bang, finding two boys in the middle of a brawl lose their balance and fall into her doorway. Sasuke's elbow collided with Naruto's stomach, causing him to jerk his knee and smack Sasuke in the back. The dark haired boy grunted, rolling forward and crashing into her.

Sakura didn't bother to stop the fall. The three of them fell into a mess of limbs onto her carpeted floor.

"Ack! Look what you've done Sasuke-teme! Get off her! You're going to suffocate her!"

Limbs untangled themselves, and Sakura felt a large weight lift off. " _I've_ done? You're the idiot who kneed me! And do you even know what suffocate means?"

"Yes I—Ow!"

Sakura banged her fist down onto their heads, receiving a mirrored cry from Sasuke. She crossed her arms, still annoyed from being woken up to loud banging on her door.

"What on earth are you two doing here?" she demanded.

Both boys momentarily wilted, grabbing their heads.

After a tense moment, Sasuke muttered, "Naruto started it."

"Hey! I did not you tem—"

 _Thwack!_

"No shouting," she said sternly, pulling back her fists. "I want to know why you've woken me up at such an ungodly hour."

Naruto gave her a confused look. "But Sakura-chan, it's almost dinner time… you weren't at the Academy today so I thought you were sick…"

Memories came flooding back to her mind like a tsunami, and Sakura nearly groaned out loud. She had barely cleaned herself up and collapsed in bed when the sun rose, completely devoid of chakra, it was actually a miracle Naruto managed to wake her up at all.

"Oh right," she grumbled. "Sorry, you're right. I kind of took a rest day today, but I feel better now so no worries."

Naruto looked satisfied. "And you'll never guess! Sasuke-teme's cousin woke up this morning! It was a apparently some big miracle—"

"Dobe!" Sasuke hissed. "He's _my_ cousin, I should be the one to tell the news!"

"Really?" she inquired, genuinely happy. "That's great Sasuke! Did you go see him?"

"Not yet. I was going to go today but Naruto said to follow him to your house—"

"Did not!" Naruto protested. "You were the one who wanted to come along to see Sakura-chan—"

"All right, all right, enough," she sighed exasperatedly, smiling. "Let's all go now, shall we?"

"Yes!" Naruto pumped a fist into the air.

"Hn."

Sakura ran up the stairs to her room, rummaging for a change of clothes. After a second of searching, she pulled on a comfortable kimono-shirt and a pair of grey lounge pants.

She scanned her chakra as she walked back down, estimating that she had recovered nearly half. It was good enough.

Naruto and Sasuke led her out of the house as they chattered and argued about what they did at the Academy. The sun was low in the sky, and Sakura felt her stomach grumble slightly for food.

"Hey Naruto, want to stop at Ichiraku's when we go back?"

His eyes lit up like Christmas had come early. "You bet, Sakura-chan! I'll out-eat Sasuke in ramen any day!"

"Who would want to binge on ramen?" Sasuke shot back.

"So you're saying I'm better than you, right? I knew it, I—"

"What? You're on, dobe! I don't lose in anything!"

Sakura sighed again as the two continued to banter on, all the way to Shisui's room. The nurses threw the boys strange looks as they walked through the hospital halls, and she had a temporary urge to smack the two again.

Thankfully, they reached Shisui's door without the need for violence, and Sasuke was the first to enter.

"Aniki! You're here!"

Itachi glanced up from his chair. "Sasuke. Naruto-kun. Sakura-san."

She waved cheerily at him, following Naruto's loud greeting.

"Sheesh, can't catch a break with you three, eh?" Shisui grinned. He was sitting up in bed, looking much more alive than she had seen him the before.

"Sasuke said your recovery was some sort of crazy miracle!" Naruto blurted. "So? So? You gotta tell us what happened?"

Shisui laughed. "Dunno, Naruto-kun. I sort of just woke up. I don't think I did anything special myself." His eyes flickered to her, and he grinned. "My cute little Sakura-chan! You've come to visit me too! I think I deserve a hug for all my hard work right?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "You literally _just_ said you didn't do anything special yourself."

Shisui pouted. "You're so not cute Sasuke, you know that?"

"Good. Being cute is useless."

"Now, now, don't say that," Shisui said shewrdly. "I bet when Sakura-chan gets older, all she'll have to do is smile and the enemy nin will give up right away, eh? Oh, imagine all the boys I'll have to fight off—"

"Shisui-san!" she growled, about to smack him upside the head. The man was the most un-Uchiha Uchiha she had ever met. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you weren't waiting at death's door just the other day. Were you pretending to sleep?"

Shisui looked appalled, putting a hand over his chest. "How could you say that about me, Sakura-chan! I'm probably the most honest Uchiha you'll ever meet!"

"There _is_ something funky about you," Naruto muttered, squinting his eyes as if to study the older Shinobi a bit better.

Sasuke smirked. "Yeah Shisui, are you sure you're an Uchiha at all? Where'd you really come from?"

"Itachi! Are you seriously going to let them gang up on the poor me like this?" he whined.

Itachi, who had been watching the entire conversation with mild amusement simply blinked once in response. "I'm not the one getting run under by a group of ten year olds."

Completely against the odds, Shisui sagged dramatically into his bed, clutching his head. "Oh my head. I think I might die early of a migraine."

Even knowing that he was joking, Sakura felt her right hand twitch in a habitual movement of checking his condition. If some incompetent nurse accidently undid all her hard work, she might just blow something up.

"Oh, don't be melodramatic," Sasuke muttered. "At least you don't have Academy homework. That stuff is such a bore."

Naruto groaned in response.

"Speaking of, you three, how are your studies going?" Shisui grinned, bouncing back from his previous disposition. "Going to graduate soon?"

"I'm at the top of the class," Sasuke said proudly, crossing his arms. "Naruto's still dead last—"

"Am not!" he interrupted. "Only in the stupid writing classes—ugh, I hate studying for those."

"And Sakura," he continued, as if Naruto hadn't spoken, "still sleeps through most of the lessons."

She shot him a glare. "How many times have I told you that it's meditation, not sleeping!"

Sasuke snorted. "Yeah, and remember when Iruka-sensei tried to get your attention for five minutes but you wouldn't wake up no matter what."

"Whatever," she grumbled. "At least I always beat you in taijutsu."

Sasuke promptly turned tomato red, eyes blazing in embarrassment, and Shisui burst into laughter.

"Ah, poor Sasuke! Is Sakura-chan _still_ beating you?" he clutched his stomach, wiping a nonexistent tear from his eyes. "Oh man, just give it up, my dear cousin."

"I will not!" Sasuke declared, his face burning. He shot her a glare. "Just wait until I awaken my Sharingan—I'll totally win."

She raised a delicate brow. "Are you, Sasuke, suggesting that you can't defeat me otherwise? Well… I suppose if it'll make you feel better, then sure, go ahead."

Shisui erupted into laughter again and Sasuke stiffened.

"Give it up, Sasuke," Itachi pitched in, lips curved into a rare smile. "Leave taijutsu to Sakura-san and you can focus on ninjutsu."

Sasuke sighed. "Fine. Then what's the dobe going to specialize in?"

"I think Naruto can do ninjutsu too," she suggested. "He's got tons of chakra anyway, it doesn't even matter how bad his control is."

"Yeah!" Naruto agreed. "I'll totally be awesome at ninjutsu!"

"You're on," Sasuke immediately challenged. "I don't lose to anybody."

Shisui grinned. "Except to Sakura-chan."

.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Moving right into the canon timeline after some time travel shenanigans and Sakura doing some good deeds. If there are any other events that Sakura should have a say in, let me know. There are so many characters in _Naruto_ , it's hard to keep track of them all. Since this story is in snippets rather than rigid chronological order, I can add in your suggestions in the other chapters!

Just like before, I do not have this chapter beta-ed, beware of inevitable mistakes.

Happy reading!

El

* * *

Chapter 2

.

"Get up."

Sakura heaved, spitting out blood and dragging a trembling fist against her dirt stained cheek. Never in all her years of being a shinobi had she ever felt so hopelessly, and utterly, _outclassed._ Even when Kaguya had threatened them, she still had Naruto and Sasuke. Still had Kakashi.

Here? She was on her own.

Cycling chakra through her body, Sakura glared up at the four shinobi standing before her, looking more or less in optimal fighting condition. She had shattered the ribcage of Itachi's Susanoo an hour before, but it hardly hindered its destructive movements. Jiraiya and Obito were still moving freely, and Kakashi had a raikiri blazing in his hand.

"Come on, Sakura," Kakashi chided. "You can do better."

Jiraiya slammed his hands onto the cavern floor, and a wide swamp appeared under her body, forcing her to move. Flashing away with a double step Hiraishin, Sakura reappeared behind the Sannin, chakra blade swinging in retaliation. Her attack blast away his back in a diagonal slash, and she rolled left, already knowing she had seconds before he regenerated himself.

The distinct chirp of lightning caught her ear, and she felt the hot chakra of Kakashi's raikiri graze her side before she flashed away, landing right beside Itachi. Just as her chakra-enhanced foot was about to meet the skeletal hand of his Susanoo, she felt the distinct pull of Obito's kamui on her left arm, forcing her to teleport away.

She landed gracelessly onto the floor, barely catching herself before Jiraiya appeared behind her back, Rasengan spinning in his hand. Leaping out of the way, she jumped high into the air with a deep inhale, releasing her strongest fire jutsu onto the cavern ground.

A water dragon erupted from Kakashi's chakra, meeting her jutsu head on. Thick mist settled into the air as Sakura landed back on the floor, shaking from the adrenaline.

"Are you going to give up now, Sakura-chan?" Jiraiya called, landing a few dozen feet away. "If this is your limit, say so."

She spat against the dirt, clenching her fingers as she gave him a deadly glare. "I'll never give up."

With a renewed cry, she charged.

.

* * *

.

"Sakura! Sakura! HARUNO SAKURA!"

She jolted, snapping her eyes open as a stalk of blackboard chalk came flying at her face. Moving her head, she dodged the deadly stick as it hit the desk behind her, spinning and ricocheting to smack Shikamaru in the back on his head.

"Ow," the boy mumbled, lazily rubbing the area where he had been hit.

Naruto and Sasuke snickered next to her.

"That's it! This is the _fourth_ time this week," Iruka bellowed. "Sakura, Shikamaru, stay behind after the class ends."

There was a groan behind her where Shikamaru sat, and Sakura didn't even bother giving her meditation excuse anymore. Iruka hadn't believed her since day one.

"Hai, sensei," she grumbled, giving Naruto and Sasuke a glare. They promptly schooled their features.

Iruka dragged the class along in a long explanation of Konoha history for the remainder of the day, and Sakura fought to keep herself looking mildly interested. She didn't know if she could take this for the next five years at the Academy. The practical lessons were somewhat more intensive, but she wasn't learning anything new at all.

When Iruka finally released the class, Naruto and Sasuke gave her a snickering pat on the shoulder.

"Don't worry Sakura-chan. I'll have beaten Sasuke-teme by the time you get back."

He snorted. "Yeah, right, dobe."

She smiled. "All right. See you guys there."

The two left as the class emptied out, bickering back and forth about who'd defeat the other. Sakura felt her cheeks strain from the grin, her chest humming with satisfaction as she watched them leave. Their bond as brothers and rivals was already so strong.

"All right, Sakura, Shikamaru," Iruka crossed his arms, trying to look intimidating. "Must I lecture you two on this again? How many times has it been now?"

Sakura didn't bother answering and neither did the resident genius behind her.

Iruka sighed. "I don't understand, especially you, Sakura! You're grades are phenomenal, in all areas across the board—you could graduate early if you just put in little more effort."

That was exactly why she held back. Sakura had no desire to gain the attention of the Hokage, or worse, Danzō. If she were placed in a separate team from Naruto and Sasuke, she'd probably scream her head off until Kakashi heard her from the other timeline.

"Meh," she shrugged her shoulders. "I'm not very interested."

"As expected," he muttered, turning to Shikamaru next. "And you! You don't even try at all! You're grades are horrendous, Shikamaru! You need to stop turning in your tests blank!"

He gave Iruka a flat look. "But that requires effort."

Iruka gave a long, suffering sigh and simply gave up. It was the same lecture every week, and Sakura wondered when he would give it up for good.

"I have your punishment here," he jabbed a finger towards the two buckets on the ground. "I expect the entire room to be sparkling clean for tomorrow, understand? Even the ceiling."

Sakura frowned at the buckets, noting the large towel rags that were folded behind. "Hai."

Nodding that he at least received an answer from one of them, he grabbed his papers and headed out the door with the snap.

For a moment, neither of them spoke until Shikamaru muttered under his breath, pushing himself to his feet.

"This is so troublesome, but if I'm not home for dinner it'll be even more troublesome."

"Agreed," she nodding, walking down the steps after him. "How should we do this?"

Shikamaru picked up one of the rags before drenching it in his bucket of soapy water. "Dunno. We'd probably need to stack the desks and chairs to get the walls and ceiling though."

She picked up her own rag, releasing a pulse of sensory chakra to make sure no Anbu or high-level shinobi were in the area, possibly watching them. When her scan returned clean, she smirked.

"Leave the walls and ceiling to me, Shikamaru," she said easily. "You get everything else on the ground floor."

He looked inquisitive for a moment before deciding that it was too much effort to even ask. "Deal."

Ringing out the extra water, Sakura walked over to the back wall first, slipping off her shoes. She rolled her sleeves above her elbows and pressed the pad of her foot against the wall with chakra.

She felt Shikamaru's eyes bore into her back as she walked up the wall. Starting from the top left corner, she got into a crouching position, the towel stretched out in front of her. With a kick, she ran along the top edge of the wall, dragging all the dirt and dust with her. As she neared the corner, she forced her body to flip, using the adjacent wall as leverage and twisted around in the other direction.

Back and forth she ran across in a zigzag formation, gradually making her way down to the floor. When the last row was sparkling clean, she released the chakra from her feet, jumping onto the floor.

Shikamaru was still staring.

"You know what'll be real troublesome, Shikamaru?" she asked cheerily, cleaning the dirt out of her rag. "You end up missing dinner because you spent the entire time staring instead of cleaning."

He snorted. "Iruka-sensei wasn't lying I see."

"Why? Refused to believe that I was actually competent regardless of my sleep schedule?"

The corner of his lips tugged up. "I thought you were ' _meditating_ '?"

She grumbled. "I was! Why does no one ever believe me?"

Shikamaru got on all fours, and started cleaning the ground. "Who the heck mediates? What do you even mediate about?"

"There's no _subject_ to meditate on, that would be called analyzing something," she argued, walking up the east wall with a clean rag. "It's too clear your mind, and to promote easier chakra regulation in the long run."

"Got a lot on your mind?" he grunted.

She refused to sigh. _Just saving the world, no big deal._ "You don't even know the half of it."

"So why don't you graduate early?"

"Why don't you?" she shot back.

He momentarily stopped, looking up at her. "I'm dead-last, Sakura. As if I can."

"Don't give me that crap," she chided, jumping off the wall. "I know you're smart, Shikamaru. _You_ know you're smart. I admit your lazy façade throws people off but it's hard to hide intelligence, you know."

He looked stunned.

She gave him a grin. "You can't hide intelligence like yours. Besides, who _doesn't_ know that the Nara clan pops out tactical geniuses every generation?"

"But that's all I've got, Sakura," he shrugged, returning to his work. There was something in his eyes that seemed sharper now, as if his previous barrier of cautious laziness disappeared. "I'm smart in situations. I could give you hundreds of different ways to subdue a man with a kunai—but implementing it? That's another ordeal."

"Then practice," she said earnestly. "It might sound cliché, but you really can't improve without failure."

He looked contemplative.

" _You have to push me, Sakura," Shikamaru rubbed his hands together, a habit that showed he was frustrated. "Every day I tell myself things could have been better if I had been stronger earlier. That I could have saved Sasuke when he defected Konoha during our Genin days. That I could have saved Asuma-sensei. That I could have saved Chouji and Ino—"_

" _That's not it, Shikamaru," she argued. "You know that mission's failure wasn't on your shoulders and yours only. None of it was."_

" _No, it's true," he raised a hand, halting her objection. "Even during my fight with Temari in the Chunin Exams, I could think of ten perfect moves but my chakra reserves didn't allow me to. It's situations like those where I wish now, I would have tried harder when I was younger."_

" _What do you want to me do?"_

" _I need the encouragement to do better," he said firmly. "I'll probably be an unbelievable pain in the ass and a lazy coward to boot, but I'll thank you now while we're here."_

 _She smiled. "I won't let you down."_

"I dunno," he mumbled, wiping down the front row of desks. "I don't really find a point in it all."

After all four walls were done, Sakura walked up to the ceiling, using chakra to stop the blood from piling in her head. "Shikamaru, what's your favorite thing to do?"

"Watch clouds," he replied easily.

"Let me rephrase: what do you do best?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Shōgi."

She inwardly grinned. _Bingo._ "Are you confident in your abilities?"

"Depends on whom I'm playing against," he replied slowly, giving her a stare.

"Let's make a deal, Shikamaru," she suggested, landing in front of him. "If I can win against you in a game of Shōgi, you have to come out and train with Naruto, Sasuke and I every day after the Academy ends."

He stared unblinkingly. "And what if I win?"

"Make your offer."

He seemed to think, tilting his head as if to get a better analysis of her. "I'll think about it."

"You seem pretty confident that you'll win," she said simply, catching his gaze.

"So do you."

Sakura gave him a wicked grin. "Let's figure out then, shall we?"

.

* * *

.

Naruto yelled in alarm as the bark on the tree exploded outwards, forcing his body to jump away. He twisted in the air, landing uncoordinatedly on his back.

"Too much chakra, dobe. Use smaller amounts."

"I know, I know!" he grumbled, picking himself back up. "I get how to do it but using the right amount is impossible! My chakra doesn't want to listen to me."

Sasuke grunted as his own tree splintered underneath his foot and he was forced to jump away at the loss of balance.

"Maaah, where's Sakura-chan?" he glanced at the sun, noting how close it was to the horizon. "She's never been this late."

Sasuke's face flickered to one of curiosity as well before worry. "Who knows? Iruka-sensei could have had them cleaning the entire Academy."

Naruto wasn't fooled. "What if she's in trouble or something? Come on! We gotta go look for her!"

"What trouble?" Sasuke snorted. "She's probably just held back."

"I see you eyeing the scrape on your leg," Naruto commented shrewdly. "You wouldn't have to deal with it if we went to find Sakura-chan."

The Uchiha stilled, narrowing his eyes. "Is this blackmail, dobe?"

"Just saying," Naruto shrugged innocently.

"Naruto! Sasuke!"

Both boys snapped their heads around at the familiar voice, and Naruto felt his chest burst with warmth at her approach.

"Sakura-chan!" he shot to his feet. "Where were you? You're so late!"

Sasuke grunted in agreement.

"Sorry! Heh, I got caught up with—"

"Eh? Is that Shikamaru?" he asked, not having noticed the boy before.

Sure enough, Shikamaru was quite literally being dragged across the training ground with Sakura's hand firmly gripped the collar of his shirt. His face was uncharacteristically blushing red, a soft groan escaping his throat.

"Yeah!" she said cheerily, practically dumping the boy in between them. "Shikamaru's going to start training with us from now on."

"This lazy bastard?" Naruto stared at the dark haired boy in a new light. "I didn't know you even liked training."

"I don't," the Nara groaned, mumbling into the dirt ground. "But… ugh, this is so troublesome."

"Come on, up, up!" Sakura grinned, turning to him and Sasuke. Her brilliant green eyes surveyed the two of them, noting for injuries.

"Sasuke, leg?"

"Hn," he nodded, presenting the long scrape along his calf.

Naruto felt a sense of satisfaction—he knew the bastard's leg was bothering him. He himself never needed Sakura's medical attention too much because his injuries always seemed to heal on their own. He supposed it was some super cool ability of his.

"You can use medical ninjutsu too?" Shikamaru frowned, mouth slightly open.

"Of course!" he answered for her, pumping a fist in the air. "Sakura-chan's the best!"

"Another disclosed secret, all right?" she shot a smile at Shikamaru.

He nodded slowly. "So what are we doing?"

Sakura finished healing Sasuke's leg and turned to him with excitement. "Why, Shikamaru, you and I are going to spar of course!"

He felt his chest about to burst with delight. Watching Sakura fight was one of the coolest things in Naruto's book. "Yeah! Sakura-chan will totally beat you!"

"But you're a girl," he whined. "It's not right for boys to hit girls."

Sakura raised a brow, stretching out her muscles. "Is that going to be your excuse when you're put up against enemy kunoichi?"

Sasuke came to sit by him, a smirk pulling the corner of his lips.

"Well, no, but you're not exactly an enemy kunoichi."

"You're right. I'm a _shinobi_ , Shikamaru, One that demands you take this seriously. Only taijutsu okay?"

"But—"

"Start!" Naruto shouted.

Sakura ran towards him with incredible speed, and Shikamaru dodged the last minute, throwing his head down as her fist sailed over. Her knee came flying and he moved to the side, stumbling slightly at the movement.

Her fighting was graceful as always, and Naruto noticed Sasuke watch the match with intense concentration, undoubtedly trying to learn her style. He had still yet to defeat her, and was trying to bridge their gap every day.

"You're a little lacking in the taijutsu department, Shikamaru," Sakura commented, throwing her leg in a sweep.

He jumped, landing shakily before restoring balance. "My clan doesn't deal with taijutsu much. We're predominately long distance fighters."

"Then force yourself," she grinned, and Naruto had no idea what she was talking about. "Use that head of yours."

Shikamaru grunted.

"Are you honestly going to let a _girl,_ the same one mind you, defeat you twice in the same day?" Sakura asked slyly, and again, Naruto had no idea what she was referring to.

Just what happen during their detention?

Something seemed to spark in Shikamaru's eyes, and he began to fight back with renewed vigor. His form was quick and efficient, and Naruto felt surprise for the boy. He never knew Shikamaru was such a decent fighter. He mostly dozed off during taijutsu practice, and they were never paired together for a spar.

A sense of excitement built in his chest—something he only felt for Sasuke and Sakura—and he felt the need to spar Shikamaru too. Like Sakura had once said, fighting someone was the best way to build understanding between shinobi.

Sakura began to pick up the pace, perfectly executing a taijutsu combination that Naruto recognized. Her sharpened speed caught the boy off guard, and an open palm came sailing towards his abdomen. The strike made a solid hit, and Shikamaru went flying backwards into the bushes with a surprised grunt.

Naruto cheered at her victory.

"Ow," Shikamaru drawled, his legs sticking out from the bushes. "I think you broke something."

Sakura laughed walking over to him and pulling him out of the shrubbery. "Toughen up. You did well."

"Yeah!" Naruto jumped into the air, excitement bubbling in his stomach. "Me too, Shikamaru! I wanna fight you next!"

The Nara groaned, limping out of the trees and collapsing dramatically onto the ground. "I don't think I can move, Naruto."

He wilted, before quickly smiling again. "Okay! Then I call first dibs tomorrow!"

Sakura placed her glowing hands on Shikamaru's chest, soothing away the bruise that was beginning to form. "Nothing's broken. So you have no excuse."

"How troublesome," he muttered, still clearly out of breath. "I can't believe I agreed into doing this."

"Come on," she nudged. "It wasn't that bad, was it?"

He looked to be in thought. "Why're you guys doing this anyway? What's all the extra training for?"

"Cause I'm gonna be Hokage!" Naruto shouted with conviction. "I gotta train hard and be the best of the best!"

Sasuke shrugged, muttering about surpassing his brother no matter what is took.

"So I can protect the people close to me," Sakura whispered, catching Shikamaru's attention again. "I never want to be in a situation where I'm unable to do anything due to my own weakness."

He gave her a funny look. "That's the life of a shinobi, Sakura. Not all of us can live to the old age of the Hokage."

She smiled. "I know. But I can't replace friends when they're gone. If it means putting in the extra work now then I'll do it without complaint. Don't you have a reason for being a shinobi?"

"Dunno. I do come from a clan so I don't think I can exactly walk away and become a merchant or something."

"I'm sure you'll find it," she said with confidence. "And one day you'll realize where all your hard work is leading up to."

"Maybe," he murmured, sounding far away in thought.

"Okay, all done," she chirped, pulling her hands away. "Let's do some katas!"

Naruto whooped in agreement, readying his stance. From the corner of his eyes, he saw Shikamaru groan in complaint, but copy Sakura's form.

Maybe befriending Shikamaru wouldn't be so bad either.

.

* * *

.

Sakura was ten the first time Shisui actively sought her out.

It had been four months since she saved him from his poison induced coma, and she had made it a nightly habit of perching at the highest cliff to overlook Konoha.

For years and years, she had wandered without a village, without a home; getting to glance at it every night didn't seem to be enough.

She wasn't worried. She had strapped on her ANBU uniform and wore her mask, releasing her limiter seals in case she had to make an escape.

But it never came to that.

The nights were always fairly peaceful and quiet, and she could listen to the sounds of people going about their way, chattering endlessly, and bickering amongst each other—she could hear _life_.

Stepping towards her favorite spot on the cliff, Sakura stopped as she sensed a familiar signature already there. His chakra was bluntly unconcealed as if he wanted to give no surprises.

His back was turned to her, eyes gazing out to the village below.

"I can see why you come here," he murmured. "It's certainly nice."

She blinked. "Are you here for the view, or for me?"

Shisui grinned, turning to face her. "A little bit of both actually. You don't mind if I intrude on your spot for a while?"

She continued her walk, stopping at an arm's distance away. "I don't. How long did it take for you to find this place?"

"Too long," he sourly admitted, face scrunching. "I've been looking all around Konoha for your seals after you healed me—which, since I didn't get a chance to tell you personally, thank you."

She inwardly sighed. So Itachi told him of her Hiraishin seal. Even though she had erased the mark, it was already branded into his memory thanks to the Sharingan.

"So you've been looking for me," she concluded. "Is this an attempt to get me to the Hokage?"

He snorted. "As if I could. You've saved me twice now, and I'm not someone who ignores that, orders or not."

"Then why are you here?" She asked, surprised.

He seemed to hesitate, rubbing his fingers together in an anxious habit.

"I need your help," he said frankly.

"With what?"

He shook his head. "Actually no, let me rephrase: _Itachi_ needs your help."

Lifting an eyebrow, she gave him a stare. "For?"

Shisui gave a tired sigh, lowering himself onto the ground. "When he was eight, Itachi was diagnosed with some form of disease in his lungs. It gives him terrible coughing fits and difficulty breathing, but he hasn't done anything about it—no, there isn't much anyone can do about it according to the Konoha medics."

Sakura stilled. Itachi had told her about this. The Edo Tensei had removed the disease entirely, but he had attempted to give her a detailed account of the problem regardless. She had been wondering about how to approach the elusive Uchiha about the matter, and this was the perfect opportunity.

"It's getting worse," Shisui strained to speak. "He's been drowning himself in pain relieving medication, but unless we find the slug princess herself, I don't think he'll live much longer. Fugaku and Mikoto-san, as much as they love him, they can't stop this, and they would rather cut their own hands off than to allow Itachi to live the rest of his life as a civilian."

She grimaced at the thought. "So you want me to try and heal him."

He turned to face her fully, eyes glinting in determination. "I know you don't owe me anything and you've saved my life far more than reason, but if I have to beg, I will. Please, help him."

A soft smile stretched her lips. Shisui's love for his cousin ran unfathomably wide. It was no wonder Itachi's Mangekyō awakened with his death.

"You don't have to beg, Shisui-san. I'll do my best to help him, but I can't make any guarantees. Where is he?

He breathed in clear relief, dark eyes shining with gratitude. "Training ground. I'll take you to him."

Nodding, Shisui left in a leap and Sakura followed after, mind swirling with possibilities.

Itachi had told her his disease began acting up the year he joined Akatsuki. It was already two years past that point, and she wondered how much of his body had been damaged. Originally, He had kept himself alive with the thought of Sasuke killing him, but now that the massacre had been avoided, was there anything Itachi was living for?

A troubling sense of sorrow filled her thoughts. Did he even want to live? Sakura knew that he wasn't suicidal, but the man was a pacifist by nature. If there was a way out of the shinobi world, especially in one where he didn't seem to be all needed, would he take it?

They neared one of the training grounds on the outskirts of the village and Shisui spiked his chakra. Soon after, Itachi gave a response, pointing them a little more west.

Sakura could pinpoint the exact moment Itachi saw her. He stopped his training, standing in the midst of a ruined field, Sharingan spinning to keep track of her movements.

"Itachi," Shisui landed a few feet away and Sakura kept a respectable distance from the two. "You're probably going to smack me for this, but I—"

"Have no common sense?" Itachi smoothly interrupted, glancing at her. "I already knew. What is he doing here?"

Sakura bit back a grin as Shisui sighed.

"I brought him to take a look at your lungs."

Itachi froze, displeasure running through his normally stoic face. "So that's why you've been running around Konoha for the past few months."

"You caught me," Shisui gave a small smile.

Itachi sighed quietly, sheathing his sword. "There's nothing that can be done for—"

"Yes, there is," He interrupted, eyes narrowing. "You saw first hand how he brought me back when every Konoha medic said I wouldn't make it! You were there! I asked, and he's willing to try for you, so please just—just don't give up yet."

There was a heavy silence that met Shisui's outburst before Itachi closed his eyes, giving him a barely there nod.

"If you must."

Sakura took this as her cue to approach, glancing at Shisui as she past. She pointed to an untouched area of the field, looking at Itachi.

"Remove your shirt and take a seat, Itachi-san. I'll do an analysis today and see if I can help."

Slipping out of his mesh shirt, Itachi walked over to the designated area and sat down, revealing his bare back to her.

"It's going to feel a little intrusive but don't fight back," she ordered gently, taking a seat behind him.

He gave a small nod.

Shisui also sat down a few feet away, watching with a worried gaze. Sakura slipped off her gloves and placed her hands over his back, sending in a wave of diagnostic chakra.

Closing her eyes, she allowed her chakra to visualize for her.

Thankfully, it wasn't as bad as Itachi had described it to be during the last year of his life. The disease was beginning to take root but it hadn't progressed far enough that it was completely untreatable.

She could still help him.

Pinpointing the areas of concern, Sakura committed the damage to memory, going through dozens of different ways to help cure him. She had already created a few methods before coming back in time, but now that she had direct observation, those theories could be vastly improved.

"Hold your breath," she commanded. "When I say 'go', you're going to cough as hard as you can. Lean forward."

He took in a breath.

Quickly and efficiently as possible, she isolated all the clogged mucus and blood in his lungs, forcing them to separate. With a surge of chakra, she moved to expel it through his esophagus.

"Go."

He gave a chest-heaving cough, retching everything that she had been able to grab from his lungs. He choked slightly and shuddered, tightening his hand into a trembling fist as to not fall over completely.

"One more time," she urged.

Instead of complaining, he took in a large breath as she cycled through his lungs again, picking up every last bit of gunk that remained. "Go."

Shisui gave a small wince of sympathy as Itachi coughed and spat against the ground, blood trailing down his chin.

With a soft glow of her hands, she sent in a wave healing chakra in order to soothe his irritated lungs, urging the healthy cells to fix the damage the disease had caused.

She heard Itachi take in a deep breath, and smiled at the smoothness of it.

"Breathing easier?" She checked.

He cleared his throat. "Yes."

"So, White Anbu-san, is my idiot of a cousin curable?"

She lifted an eyebrow at the nickname, forgetting for a moment that he could not see behind the mask. "The disease isn't at a terminal stage at the moment, but his lungs have already taken an incredible amount of damage. What I've done today is just a treatment. With the dependence we put on our lungs everyday, I suspect I'll have to do this once a week before I can find a cure."

Shisui took in a sharp breath. "So you can? Cure him that is?"

"I can," she affirmed. Itachi stilled under her hands. "But only if Itachi-san would allow me to. You'd have to go under an intensive surgery, and at this point, I'd say your survival rate is fifty-fifty."

"He'll take it," Shisui answered, glaring at his cousin as if daring him to argue.

Itachi heaved a long sigh, as if testing out his temporary fix. He then gave a firm nod.

"Very well," she breathed, feeling relief pass through her. Maybe he had a reason to live after all. "Until I can come up with a cure, I will meet you here once a week to treat your lungs. Is this acceptable?"

"More than," Shisui once again answered. "I… I can't explain how grateful I am that you're doing this."

"I don't need thanks," she said seriously, getting to her feet. "Just continue to protect and treasure Konoha. Is that a promise?"

A fleeting look of surprise flashed through his face before his grinned. "Aah, you have my word."

Smiling to herself, she turned on her heel and disappeared from the field.

.

* * *

.

"Sakura! Sakura-chan!"

Groaning, she forced an eye to open, seeing the blurry image of Naruto stand over her, blue eyes round with worry. Sasuke was next to him, giving her a strange look.

"Whazzit?" she grumbled, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

"Academy's over," he said. "Iruka-sensei let us out five minutes ago. Are... Are you okay?"

Oh God. She had slept through an entire day of lessons?

"Oh," she said lamely, getting up from her seat. "Yeah, I'm just really tired."

The three left the classroom as Sasuke kept sending her suspicious looks. "Sakura. I think you're sick. You look pretty terrible too."

Forcing down the urge to punch him through the wall, she sighed. For the last two months, she had been preparing her surgery for Itachi's lungs, and was finally able to change the success rate to a whopping eighty-three percent. Within the last week, she had been getting ready for the procedure by secretly stealing some needed supplies from the hospital day by day.

"I'm fine," she insisted, scrunching her face. A sudden idea came to mind and she paused. "But I think I'll visit the hospital just in case. I _am_ feeling a little woozy."

Naruto looked devastated. "But you're never sick! Are you gonna be all right?"

She smiled. "Of course, Naruto! You know sickness can't hold me down. I'll be up and running before you know it."

He looked relieved. "Good. Cause who's gonna heal all the injuries I'm going to give Sasuke-teme this weekend?"

"What was that?" The Uchiha growled. "We'll see who's going to give who injuries, and I'll have you know, it's not going to be me that needs healing."

"Bring it, Sasuke! I'll beat your stupid Uchiha superiority out of your head any day!"

"You're on!"

Sakura felt a smile tug at her lips as they left the Academy, and she took in a deep breath, stitching the moment into her memory.

Hopefully, things would always remain like this.

Early in the following morning, Sakura stood at the highest cliff overlooking Konoha, waiting in her customary Anbu gear. She had all her medical supplies packed with her, and took a deep inhale of the crisp air. The sun was barely rising.

There was a flicker of chakra and two shinobi landed behind her, dressed as if they were taking a rest day—which, according to their excuse for the Hokage, they certainly were.

She had left a clone behind in bed, convincing Naruto and Sasuke that she needed the weekend to recover from a _terrible cold_ , and not to visit unless they wanted to catch what she had. She had threatened to bash their faces in if they got sick because of her.

She hoped that it would keep them away.

Turning on her heel, she eyed both Uchihas. "Ready?"

They gave her a nod.

"Give me your hand, both of you," she asked, lifting her own hands palm up.

They each dropped their respective hands into her grasp and there was a flare of chakra before she warped them out of Konoha.

Sakura landed with well-practiced grace while Itachi and Shisui looked slightly shaken from the teleportation. She inwardly smirked. The first time she had tried the Hiraishin, she landed flat on her face.

"Wow," Shisui blinked. "So that's what it feels like to fly through time and space. I'm not sure I like it."

"It takes time to get used to," she admitted.

"Where is this?" Itachi asked softly, glancing around the dark hall.

"An abandoned area in whirlpool," she said, leading them deeper down into the building.

Shisui looked stunned. "You mean we're not even in Fire Country anymore?"

"No," she confirmed. "I thought it would be best due to it being neutral grounds since its destruction."

No other questions were asked as Sakura led them into the deepest sector of the corridor. The room was far brighter with lights hung up along the walls and ceiling, she squinted slightly to adjust. There was an operating table in the far back hooked to many machines and monitors that she had taken from the hospital. She knew from personal experience that the extra machines were hardly accounted for—it would take a long while before anyone noticed they were missing.

"You've really got this place filled out," Shisui commented, glancing around.

"It's a twenty-eight hour surgery," she said simply. "I need everything I could get. Itachi-san if you will."

She pointed to the table and he walked over, slipping out of his clothes.

"Shisui-san, I need you to check the perimeter every two hours. Whirlpool may have been destroyed, but it doesn't mean shinobi don't pass through the area. I don't want to take any chances."

"Right," he nodded. "I'll take my first round."

Slipping on his weapon gear, he was gone in a flicker.

A bright light flooded Itachi's pale form as she clicked on the lamp, and she studied his physique with a quick clinical scan. He was tall for his age but still grossly underweight due to his sickness.

Placing a hand on his bicep, she slid and IV through his arm, prepping the machines to read his signals.

"Relax," she said softly, placing a mask over his mouth and nose. "Count to ten in your head… It'll all be over by the time you wake up."

Within moments, his breathing evened out, eyelids shutting close. Sakura took a deep inhale, lifting off all her worries and insecurities. She was in her element.

She was going to save him.

.

* * *

.

"Hiru-kun! Thanks for cleaning out the lab last week. I didn't notice at first but you did a really good job with sanitizing everything."

A black haired man raised his head from the microscope. "Masaki-chan? I... Wait, I thought _you_ were the one who cleaned them out."

She made a face of confusion. "No...? I thought you..."

He shrugged. "Probably one of the interns cleaned it for us. How nice of them."

"Oh, that's quite thoughtful," she smiled, thinking about which one could have done it. They were all sweet mannered and hard working; it could have been all of them. "I want to do something nice for them too. How about we buy them dinner?"

He gave a grin. "Sounds good. I know they've been working pretty hard."

"So did you ever find out what happened to Uchiha Shisui?" She asked, rummaging through the cabinets for the right painkillers. "I know you were placed under Okuro-sensei with his case."

Hiru shook his head. "No idea. Sensei said there was some sort of unidentifiable poison clogging his brain, extracting it meant death. He certainly wasn't going to do it and have the Uchiha die under his hand. The clan would have been after his head. And if sensei couldn't, no one could."

"And yet?" She pressed.

"It's sort of hard to believe… Uchiha-san simply woke up one morning, and a quick scan revealed his head and body completely free of any toxins. Even that huge scar across his torso disappeared."

She felt a sense of awe grip her. "So it was true."

"Yeah," Hiru nodded, turning a knob ever so slowly. "It's been under tight wraps, but you know how the Uchiha are. It might be some freak of nature power that they have."

"Wow," she murmured, hugging the bottle of painkillers to her chest. "Then what about that Uchiha Itachi? Is he—"

"Shhh!" He hushed, snapping his head around. "You know that's a top secret patient of sensei's."

She nodded. "But is he still... You know?"

Hiru nodded. "Okuro-sensei's the best in Konoha and even he gave the Uchiha genius three more years to live at most."

"How tragic," she whispered, darting her eyes around just in case. "But Hiru-kun, what if he somehow miraculously recovers like Shisui-san?"

He gave a snort. "I'll believe it when I see it."

"Yeah," she breathed. "You're right, that'd be so silly. Since when were the Uchihas such capable self-healers?"

"Exactly," Hiru nodded, snapping the microscope off. "Now let's think about dinner. What do you have in mind?"

She smiled, all thoughts of Uchihas leaving her mind.

"Hmm... How does barbecue sound?"

.

* * *

.

When Shisui returned from his last perimeter check, he was terribly tired and dreary. There had been a brief confrontation with a few bandits, some travelers, and a couple gold diggers, but they were nothing he couldn't handle with a little genjutsu.

Jumping back into the abandoned building the White Anbu had brought them to; he felt his legs lengthen in strides as he approached. Itachi's surgery should have finished by now.

He flared his chakra, letting the occupants know of his identity before busting into the room.

The Anbu was no longer standing restlessly over Itachi, but slouched in a chair, head titled back in obvious exhaustion.

"Success," his whispered, voice raspy and low.

Shisui could have cried right then and there, but he kept his emotions inside, unwilling to shed them. Itachi probably would have smacked him if he were awake.

He approached his cousin, taking note of his smooth and deep breathing while listening to his heart monitor beep.

"He'll be out for another day," the Anbu said gently. "I'll give him two more days of aftercare and rest before he can be moved."

He felt his chest lighten. He owed so much to this person and he didn't even know his face or name.

"You should rest," Shisui urged.

"So should you."

He sighed. It was like arguing with Itachi. "I promise I won't peek under your mask."

"Aah," he breathed, a sense of mirth in his tone. "You don't have to worry about that. I need to pick up some things in Konoha so I will be returning there for rest. Itachi-san's vital readings are linked to my chakra so if anything goes wrong, I'll be here in seconds."

"Thank you," he said firmly, trying to meet his eyes. "You're probably sick of hearing this from Itachi and I but there's no other way to express my gratitude."

"You're welcome, Shisui-san."

He pursed his lips. "Just out of curiosity, do you go around Konoha doing good deeds and mysteriously saving people every day?"

His chest bubbled in slight laughter and Shisui noted that it was quite soft and melodious. "Sometimes."

"For how long?" He asked, pressing his luck. "Because I'm really starting to doubt your age. You must be under some sort of highly complex appearance jutsu. I've heard rumors that Tsunade of the Sannin uses something similar that even the Sharingan can't see past."

"Now, Shisui-san, aren't you getting a little personal? There's a reason I have a mask on my face you know."

He gasped, a sudden idea popping into his head. "Are you perhaps... The Yondaime reincarnated?"

The Anbu nearly fell out of his chair. "Hah...?"

He felt something click. "Yeah, it'd make sense! The Yondaime died ten years ago sealing the Kyūbi, and you're the perfect size for his reincarnation! Am I right? I mean, how else would you be able to utilize Hiraishin so well?"

The Anbu burst out in laughter, quite literally falling of the chair as he clutched his stomach. His voice was hoarse and weary from exhaustion, but Shisui could sense true amusement in it.

He wilted. "So either I'm dead right or completely wrong. Which is it?"

His laughter died into slow breaths, and Shisui could have sworn he was smirking under the mask.

"I don't think I'll say anything," he replied shrewdly. "Now are you done asking questions?"

He grumbled. "I'm a curious shinobi by nature. Can't help it."

With another amused grunt, the Anbu got to his feet, steadily testing out his balance. "Well then, I'm sure you could use that curiosity to keep Itachi-san safe while I'm gone. I will return in twelve hours."

Shisui gave him an affirmative nod and a sigh. "Very well."

After giving the room once last glance, the Anbu pivoted on his heal and disappeared in a flash.

Walking over to the second chair, Shisui collapsed onto the seat with his head rolled back.

"Hey, Itachi, our roles are sorta reversed now, eh? How does it feel?"

Even breathing responded to the silence, occasionally disrupted by the heart monitor.

Leaning back further into the chair, Shisui allowed himself to close his eyes, listening to his cousin's heartbeat. Before entering, he had placed a strong genjutsu around the entire building, if it was broken, he'd immediately know.

With that thought, he allowed himself to succumb to sleep, imagining all the teasing remarks of 'I told you so' that he would throw when his silly cousin awoke.

.

* * *

.

A large smile stretched across her lips as Sakura picked up the get-well card on her nightstand, reading the message inside.

Itachi was on his way to recovery, resting in the confines of the old Uchiha compound with Shisui. She had told them that if there were any problems, she could be found sitting on the highest cliff that overlooked Konoha every night—the exact spot where Shisui had first found her.

She did her damn best within the last three days to help him recover, and hoped Itachi would take his rest seriously. If he ended up getting some sort of infection due to training when he should have been sleeping—she had threatened to gouge out his eyeballs and transplant them in backwards.

Sakura sighed as her clone's memories settled in her mind. Naruto and Sasuke had visited her twice, and she had pretended to sleep both times they were over. The card in her hand had a delicately written letter for her health, and the bottom was signed off with Naruto and Sasuke's name. It was then roughly crossed out and replaced with Sasuke and Naruto. That was crossed out as well, replaced with Naruto and the teme. Another cross. Sasuke and the dobe. A large 'X' covered the entire mess of signatures before a delicate hand concluded the letter with 'Sincerely, Mikoto and the boys'.

She burst out into laughter, imagining the two fighting over who's name would be written first. Of course they would fight about it.

A momentary sense of guilt washed over her at fooling them, but she quashed it without mercy. Itachi's life was far more important than her silly feelings of guilt.

Setting the card down, she turned to glance at the single sunflower on her stand. She immediately recognized the wrapping as the style from Ino's shop, but a quick retrace of her clone's memories proved that the blonde had not visited her.

Shikamaru.

Sliding out of bed, Sakura quickly made her way to the bathroom in order to ready herself for the day. After coming in with chakra exhaustion, she had woken up well into the afternoon, missing the morning lessons of the Academy.

After getting out of the shower and pulling on her clothes, Sakura left the house with a quick snack. Her parents had left on another business trip, and wouldn't be back for the next two months.

Closing the door behind her with a tune on her lips, Sakura turned to the streets and stopped dead in her tracks.

The Hokage Mountain was orange.

Bright orange.

Her sandwich nearly dropped from her hand as her jaw dropped, unable to turn away from the atrocious image. Whispers and shrieks of disbelief ran through the streets as people stopped and turned to look at the carved faces on the cliff's edge.

Hashirama had been given a black, perfectly curved mustache, contrasting greatly with his new orange color; Tobirama had been turned into a drag queen; the Third had his beard littered with black dots, making it look as if he had fleas, and Naruto's father was sporting the face of a clown.

By the reactions of the people in the streets, this had not been the case until very recently.

Feeling a sense of foreboding, Sakura hastened her strides to the Academy. She kept a keen ear on the whispers, wondering if the culprits had been caught already.

Three streets down, she felt familiar chakra signatures come into her range.

They were running.

From the other end of the road, Sakura could spot Naruto in the lead with Sasuke on his left and Shikamaru right behind, running as if their lives depended on it.

"Sakura-chan!"

She stopped dead, blinking in horror. She assumed they would stop to tell her the news, but she was very, very wrong. Two arms hooked her under the shoulder, and Shikamaru's arm wrapped around her ankles, hoisting her into the air and running on without pause.

"What are you guys _doing_?" she spluttered. The rockiness of their running was jostling her grip on her sandwich.

"We'll explain later!" Sasuke yelled back, picking up the pace.

From the other end of the street, she spotted Iruka and a few other Chūnins rounding the corner, looking absolutely murderous.

"Sakura!" Iruka bellowed, spotting her hanging within the boys' grasp. "So _this_ is why you were absent this morning!"

She let out a horrified gasp. "Wait, _what_?"

"Naruto!" Shikamaru called. "They're gaining on us!"

"I know! I know!" the blonde answered. "Just follow my lead! I know exactly where to go!"

Sakura could only tilt her head back in confusion, trying to see where the boys were leading her.

"Did you guys do that to the Hokage Mountain?" she demanded, trying to glare the answer out of them.

"It wasn't my idea," Shikamaru groaned, readjusting his grip on her legs.

"Of course," Sasuke smirked. "It's a masterpiece."

Naruto suddenly took them in a steep right, and she felt her body being pulled from odd directions before the other two boys followed along.

She jerked her head back, trying to see the road with upside down vision. They were rapidly approaching a tall brown fence.

Naruto cackled, bringing up a hand seal. "Sasuke! Shikamaru! How are your henge skills?"

"Perfect," the Uchiha muttered, bringing up his own ram seal.

Shikamaru grunted. "Passable."

"Good!" Naruto yelled. "Prepare to henge into some women!"

There was a moment of confusion that passed through the dark haired boys, but it was too late. With a mighty leap, Naruto jumped into the air with Sasuke and Shikamaru following his lead without hesitation. Sakura's jaw dropped as she soared through the air between them, understanding dawning through her.

Her sandwich fell from her grasp.

" _Oiroke no Jutsu_!" Naruto yelled.

There were three clouds of smoke that erupted around her, and Sakura looked down to see them passing over the tall wooden fence, heading straight towards the women's hot springs.

There was a short cry of surprise from the occupants as four bodies fell into the wide pool of the scalding hot water, and Sakura felt her limbs being released. Righting herself, she shot her head out of the surface, gasping as the air hit her tingling skin. Three more heads burst from the surface, and she felt her jaw lower at the sight of them.

Naruto was Naruto. He had transformed into his customary version of his sexier, female counterpart, pigtails thoroughly drenched.

Shikamaru looked like a younger version of his mother.

And Sasuke—he could give Haku a run for his money. Long ebony hair trailed down from head to waist, framing the most delicate of facial features.

"My goodness!" one of the elder ladies in the pool put a hand on her chest. Her bare chest. "W-Where did you four come from?"

Shikamaru blushed red, forcing himself to look down, and Sasuke seemed to hold back his flush with pure willpower. He opted to look at the fence.

"You've got to help us, lady!" Naruto shouted, his voice uncharacteristically high pitched. "There's these perverted shinobi that are after us!"

"What?" another woman gasped, looking scandalized. "Perverts?"

That seemed to catch the attention of everyone in the hot springs, and Sakura glanced around to see at least a dozen women in the pool.

In a beat, the fence shook as a half-dozen shinobi landed on the top of the railing. "Naruto, you—Holy!"

Iruka promptly went beet red, a spurt of blood trailing from his nose. He fell backwards, disappearing behind the fence.

"It's the perverts!" one of the women screeched, her voice echoing through the hot springs. "Protect the young ones!"

"Wait a minute!" A Chūnin held his hands out. "T-This isn't what it looks like. We're here for—"

Immediately, a swarm of women surrounded the four of them in the water, and Sakura thought Shikamaru was about to faint from turning so red. Sasuke didn't look any better.

"Get out of here, you perverts!"

"You disgusting excuse of a shinobi! I ought to emasculate you!"

The Shinobi dodged a barrage of flip-flops and deadly aimed bars of soap, looking mixed between embarrassed and stunned.

"We only want those four! They're not who you—"

"Pedophiles!" the elderly lady screamed. "The worst kind! How dare you show your face here!"

"What? No! We're—"

"Get out!"

"Perverts!"

"Pedophiles!"

"I'll report you to the Hokage!"

The final threat seemed to do it as the last remaining shinobi, who hadn't fainted from a nosebleed, jumped off the fence, red faced.

As their chakra signatures went away, Sakura glanced up, finding a very prominent pair of breasts right in front of her face.

"Are you four okay?" the women cooed, patting her soaked hair as some form of comfort. "There, there, don't be scared. The big sisters sent them all away."

"Thanks, nee-chan!" Naruto gave a cheek splitting grin. "We really owe you!"

"Nonsense!" another lady smiled warmly. "We girls have to look out for each other, ne? If they bother you again, you four come straight to us!"

Naruto nodded eagerly. "You're the best!"

There was a round of mutual agreement that went through the women as Sakura grabbed Shikamaru and Sasuke's arms, towing them out of the water.

"Oh my god," Shikamaru muttered under his breath. "My mother will kill me when she finds out."

" _If_ she finds out," Sasuke threw back. "Because my mother will _not_ be hearing of this."

Sakura just smacked both of them upside the head as they walked out of the building, glancing around to make sure no Chūnins were waiting to ambush them. Naruto finally made his way out last. There was a simultaneous poof of smoke as the three boys released their jutsu, reverting back to their usual forms.

"Congratulations on getting better, Sakura-chan!" Naruto cheered, his hair still dripping wet.

She smacked the back of his head as well, causing the blonde to cry in alarm, mirroring Shikamaru and Sasuke's pose.

"What was that for?" all three chorused.

She gave a dramatic sigh. "I lost my sandwich, you idiots!"

.

* * *

.

Sakura lifted an eyebrow at the two boys in front of her, watching them slightly squirm under her gaze.

"What did you do _this time_?" She asked, wanting to sigh in exasperation. She spends one Sunday evening with her parents and something clearly goes wrong.

Naruto grunted. "It's Sasuke-teme's fault—"

"Is not!" He immediately defended. "You're the one who wanted to challenge him in the first place!"

"He called us losers by fate!" Naruto shot back. "Were you really gonna stand there and let him insult you?"

"Of course not, but that didn't mean you had to run your mouth off about Sakura!" Sasuke growled. "He's already a Genin!"

"I don't care!" The blonde crossed his arms. "He kept shouting about the greatness of clan kids and how we'll never match up—he's worse than you cold fish Uchihas!"

"Hey! Quit insulting my clan!"

Sakura suddenly had a dreadful feeling, already having a good idea who they were talking about.

"Okay, okay, enough," she raised her hands. "So you challenged some stuck up Genin to a fight. Did you at least win?"

Naruto immediately wilted. "Well, we didn't actually fight because, um, I might have... sort of..."

"He challenged him with your name," Sasuke said instead, giving Naruto a glare. "Said you could defeat him in taijutsu match."

Sakura wanted to smack her face. Of course Naruto would.

"He kept saying you wouldn't match up because you didn't come from a clan!" Naruto said, clenching his fists. "I—I was just so angry and he was _insulting_ you and I—"

"Naruto," she called softly, putting a firm hand on his shoulder. "It's fine. I'm happy that you stood up for me. I don't believe in this fate nonsense either."

He looked ready to cry. "You... You're not mad?"

"I'm not," she assured, and she saw Sasuke lower his shoulders in relief as well. "Just tell me who you challenged."

He scrunched his face. "Er, Some weird eyed—"

"Hyūga Neji," Sasuke supplied.

"Yeah that's the name!" Naruto nodded. "I told him we'll be at training ground eleven after the academy ends."

Sakura glanced at the clock, wanting to sigh. "Well, we're already ten minutes late. Shall we go?"

She took the lead out the door with Sasuke and Naruto silently following behind.

"Don't worry Sakura-chan," Naruto muttered as they walked out of the building. "You'll win for sure."

"How do you know?" She asked with honest curiosity. "I could just as easily lose."

"You won't," Sasuke said, voice filled with such conviction, she nearly faltered. "Because he's a loner of a shinobi. Naruto and I briefly watched him train with his team yesterday, and he doesn't respect either of them. You won't lose to a guy like that."

She felt a smile creep onto her face. "Thanks, you two."

Within minutes, they neared the field of training ground eleven, and she send a slither of chakra to her ear, allowing her to pick up three voices.

"Of course they're not coming," a cold voice said, and she automatically linked it to Neji's. "They're just Academy students. They probably realized that they don't stand a chance."

"You were too harsh," a softer voice scolded. Tenten. "They said they were going to graduate in four months. You can't call them doomed failures."

"Tenten is right," Lee's ever-enthusiastic voice intervened. "Gai-sensei always says that the students are the future of a youthful Konoha!"

"You're no different than them, Lee," Neji shot back. "Just give it up. You'll never defeat me either."

Tenten gave a soft sigh just as Sakura walked into the field, catching their attention.

"We're here, you fate-obsessed jerk!" Naruto announced, pointing a finger at the Hyūga. "Get ready to be pummeled into the ground by—"

"Naruto!" She groaned, swiping his finger away. "Pointing fingers isn't nice manners."

He grumbled. "I don't think this guy even _knows_ what nice manners are."

Neji narrowed his snowy eyes. "So the losers have returned."

"Hey! We didn't lose in anything!" Naruto growled. Sasuke nodded vehemently in agreement.

"Doesn't matter how many people you bring," Neji sneered. "Once a loser is always a loser. And it looks like I'll have to break you out of your delusion in thinking that you're worth anything."

Sakura gave a quiet exhale, feeling a spike of anger cloud her eyes. She knew she was no Naruto, but she was perfectly capable of knocking him down a couple notches.

She missed the old Neji dearly. The one who had learned to depend on others, to let go of his bitterness—the one who saved Naruto's life.

Flashes of his death flew past her eyes, and she held back a shudder. Had she been faster—stronger—had more chakra—

No. Never again.

She met his gaze squarely.

"No one else is needed, Hyūga-san," she said softly, walking into the center of the field. "I am enough."

He scowled. "Such useless confidence. Are you the clanless one that those two were going about yesterday? Just give it up, you won't get anywhere in the shinobi life either. It's your fate."

"Neji!" Tenten frowned, clearly unhappy with his words. Sakura remembered that she also came from a clanless background.

She fought the urge to roll her eyes. "Let's make a deal, Hyūga-san, if you win this match, I'll admit to being a failure and quit being a Shinobi."

Naruto gasped and Sasuke stiffened, eyes widening.

"Sakura-chan, no! It's not—"

She put up a hand, halting the blonde's words. "I don't go back on my word. Now, if I win—"

"There's no need to say it," Neji spat. "Your fate was sealed the moment you decided to come here. You won't win."

"Do not interrupt me, Hyūga," she said coldly, eyes hardening. "If I win, you will sincerely _apologize_ to your teammates as well as Naruto and Sasuke for your belittling words."

Tenten gave her a bewildered look and Lee's jaw dropped.

"Fine," Neji nodded. "If you want to quit being a shinobi so desperately, I'll gladly do the honors."

She smiled. "In fact, I'll make it easy for you. Land one solid hit on me, and I'll consider it your victory."

Naruto looked close to fainting and Sasuke was glaring hard.

"Your stupidity is overwhelming," he snarled, clearly detesting the fact that his skills were being undermined. "I'll finish this in seconds."

Sakura crouched down, discreetly unwrapping the bandage on her left leg and releasing a flare of chakra into the weight seal. It disabled at her touch, and she felt a series of clicks run down her spine, traveling to the tips of her fingers and to her feet.

She was free.

Rewrapping her ankle, she stood up, eyeing the boy across from her. He settled into the gentle fist stance, veins protruding from the side of his eyes.

A tense silence hung in the air as both waited to observe.

Sakura knew he was gravely underestimating her, and it would turn to be his downfall.

As expected, Neji lashed out first, palm flying through the air to strike her chest. She sidestepped nimbly, sensing the wash of chakra that surrounded his fingers.

He came from her left, and she made a smooth dodge, missing his hand by inches. Again and again, Sakura maneuvered around his strikes in a graceful dance, noting the surprise that was starting to grow in his eyes.

"Is running the only thing you can do?" he hissed.

His movements started to quicken, momentarily forcing her on the defensive. Increasing her speed, Sakura parried his blows with chakra-coated hands of her own, neutralizing his attacks. It was an extremely difficult skill to master that needed absolute precision, but if there was one thing she was strong in, it was her chakra control.

Sakura ducked under a strike and finally lifted a hand in retaliation. His eyes widened as she slipped past his guard, hand moving to his face. With a chakra-enhanced finger, she flicked his forehead protector, sending him flying back with a surprised grunt.

Not giving him time to catch himself, Sakura shunshined behind him in a flash, slamming her heel into his chest with the slightest bit of chakra—just enough to bruise painfully but not break. She didn't want to incapacitate him for life.

He crashed into the ground, breaking into the earth, and his byakugan faded from her disturbing shock of chakra. She saw his right shoulder dislocate under the pressure, and her other foot came sliding into his throat, forcing his chin back and exposing his neck.

The training ground went silent.

She pressed a kunai to his jugular, giving him the coldest look she could muster.

"Do you know where a shinobi gains his strength from, Hyūga-san?" She asked, watching him struggle underneath her foot. "The reason why I was able to defeat you today was because of Naruto and Sasuke. They are the ones that pull me forward and strengthen my spirit to get stronger every day. But you? You fight for yourself. A shinobi is only as strong as the people or things he wants to protect. If you have none of that, it's no wonder you lost to me."

He spat out blood, eyes narrowing. "You wouldn't understand anything."

"I don't need to understand," she said simply. "I may not come from a clan but that doesn't mean I can't be a shinobi. It doesn't matter where you were born; we all climb the ladder the same way through hard work and determination. Frankly, the only idea of fate that is chaining you down—is yourself."

Pushing off his chest, Sakura rose to her feet and tucked her kunai away.

"You may give your apologies at your own time," she said, glancing back to his shocked teammates. "Because if a shinobi is anything, he doesn't go back on his given word."

"Ah," she turned back to him, watching him struggle out of the broken earth. "You should probably visit the hospital too. When you become a true shinobi worthy of my respect, I'll consider healing you then."

In a pivot of her heel, she walked back to her boys, nothing the look of relief that was on their faces.

Betting with your shinobi career was unheard of, after all.

"Sakura-chan, you scared me for a moment there," Naruto whispered, clutching his jacket.

Sasuke glared. "If Sakura had lost her shinobi career because you ran your mouth off, I was going to pummel you myself."

He gave a feeble nod. "Sounds acceptable."

Laughing lightly, she threw her arms around them with a warm smile. "Wanna get some ramen? I'm too lazy to make dinner."

Sasuke gave a smirk and Naruto cheered excitedly, his previous disposition fading.

"You got it, Sakura-chan! Ramen bonding time is a must!"

"Dobe, don't give it such a weird name," Sasuke grimaced. "Let's call it a weekly gathering or something."

"But that's so boring," the blonde complained. "How about an epic noodle meeting?"

Sasuke sighed, and she gave a silly grin. "Done. From now on, our weekly visits to Ichiraku shall be called Epic Noodle Meetings!"

.

* * *

.

"I'll fail them."

Sarutobi sighed, looking at the war hardened shinobi in front of him. "You haven't even looked at their profiles, Kakashi."

The copy nin shrugged, looking perfectly unruffled. "Don't need to. No one is going to meet my expectations, Hokage-sama. They're all children trying to play shinobi."

He felt a smile creep onto his face. "I insist Kakashi, take a look at your team."

A file flew in the air and Kakashi caught the folder easily, flipping the cover open. There was a slight stiffening of his shoulders and Sarutobi knew he saw the first candidate.

"You're giving me Minato's son?"

"You'd be the most capable," he nodded. "Naruto's scores are not too terrible either. His written exam was atrocious but he did pass."

"I won't give him special circumstances just because he's Minato's son," Kakashi said seriously. "If he doesn't meet, he fails."

"As I would expect," Sarutobi replied easily.

Kakashi flipped to the next profile, one eye narrowing. "Uchiha Sasuke. I heard he hardly matches up to his brother's genius."

"He's this year's number one rookie," Sarutobi reminded. "Maybe not a prodigy by your standards but he does come from _that_ clan—he's bound to get interesting developments."

"His scores are decent," the copy-nin nodded slowly, scanning the profile.

He gave a deep puff of smoke from his pipe. "Just give him a chance, Kakashi."

"We'll see," Kakashi muttered, flipping to the last candidate. "Haruno Sakura? Isn't this the civilian girl that Naruto was friends with as a kid?"

"The one and only. You'll see that she's no simple civilian, regardless of her background. Take a look at her final test scores—reminds you of someone you know, hm?"

"Itachi…" he murmured, lone eye wide. "But her yearly class scores are terribly average."

"Don't let it fool you," Sarutobi warned. "She's highly intelligent for her age. Shikaku told me she bested his son, Shikamaru, in Shōgi when they were seven—still continues to if I may add."

"So she's paper smart," Kakashi argued.

He gave a knowing smile. "As you're quite close to Gai, I'm assuming you heard about what happened to his genius student just four months ago?"

Kakashi gave a quick and wary glance around the office as if he expected the green clad shinobi to come bursting into the room.

"Er, something about 'a youthful blossom of such grace that changed the boy forever', is all I got from the conversation," Kakashi admitted.

Sarutobi chuckled. "I don't know the details myself but Haruno Sakura somehow ended up fighting Hyuuga Neji and defeated him mercilessly. I believe he got a rude awakening from being crushed by an Academy student."

Kakashi's eyebrow rose. "So my team consists of a jinchūriki, an Uchiha, and civilian born genius? What are you setting them up for? Hunter-nin?"

He sighed. "Surprisingly, that was not what I had in mind. The three of them simply gravitated together over the years of being close friends—I don't think it'd be wise to separate them. Besides, their academy scores balance eachother out more or less."

"Hn," Kakashi grunted, snapping the folder shut. "We'll see how they do tomorrow."

He walked out of the office in a nonchalant pose, but Sarutobi had seen the glimmer of curiosity in his eye. He had him caught.

.

* * *

.

"Hatake Kakashi," her voice rang out in the empty room. Naruto and Sasuke were peering with interest over her shoulder. "Also known as Copy-nin Kakashi for having a Sharingan in his left eye from an unknown incident many years back. Rumored to have copied over a thousand jutsu."

"What?" Sasuke frowned, staring at the book in her hands. "I've never heard of that. Our clan has tight regulations on the Sharingan. How the hell did he get it?"

She shrugged, knowing the story would pop up later. "Guess we'll figure out, eh? Let's see… Graduated from the Academy when he was five, made Chūnin promotion when he was six—"

"Five?" Naruto screeched, disbelief over his face. "We all entered the Academy at five!"

"It was during the Third Shinobi War, dobe," Sasuke clarified, still frowning. "They forced kids out of the Academy as soon as possible if they showed even the slightest bit of potential. It's what happened to Itachi-nii."

"Oh," Naruto quieted, looking uncharacteristically dispirited. "What else?"

"He was in a team under the fourth Hokage, Namikaze Minato, widely known for his genius at ninjutsu and keen intelligence."

"A formidable shinobi," Sasuke nodded in satisfaction.

Sakura grinned. "He also has a habit of being notoriously late to everything. You know what that means?"

Naruto gave a sly smile. "The prank is on!"

Sasuke smirked.

…

"Eraser ready?"

"Check."

"Paintballs?"

"Check."

"Wires?"

"Hn."

"Water?"

"Check, check, check! Let's get this started, Sakura-chan!"

She grinned, feeling Naruto's excitement fill the room. "It's been a few hours so he should be here soon. Sit down and act innocent."

The blonde snickered, sitting down next to her as they surveyed the rigged room. It was a masterpiece.

Sure enough, Sakura sensed a familiar chakra signature walk down the hallway towards their room. She tensed slightly, alerting Naruto and Sasuke to their guest.

A hand gripped the edge of the door, freeing the eraser that was held against the wall. Faster than she could blink, the wires triggered as the door moved, and a launch of paintballs flew towards the white haired Jōnin at the doorstep. A bucket of water swung from the adjacent wall pouring its contents as another set of wires wrapped around the nin to hold him in place. A great _splat_ sounded as the paintballs meant their mark, and there was an explosion of color.

Naruto cheered and Sasuke grinned at the sight of their sensei covered and dripping in paint, wrapped tightly in wires. Their joy was short lasted however, as Kakashi disappeared in a poof of smoke, leaving behind a thoroughly vandalized Academy chair.

"Maa, so eager for action."

All three whipped their heads around at the voice, finding the masked nin staring down at them from the desk a row back, completely clean.

Sakura smirked. An excellent substitution jutsu if she said so herself.

"What the heck, sensei!" Naruto yelled, pointing. "We _so_ had you!"

His eye crinkled in the oh-so familiar way Sakura was used to, and she felt the sudden desire to cry. Kakashi had been her stronghold and her anchor for the last ten years after the war. He was her constant companion through thick and thin. To finally be able to see him up close and well made her heart constrict.

"How can I say this?" he rubbed his chin, looking at the three of them. "My first impression is… I don't like you guys."

She had promised him too.

"Meet me at the roof by the south garden," he ordered, and with a poof, he disappeared.

"Maaaan! We were so close!" Naruto wailed.

"At least now we know he's somewhat competent," Sasuke smirked, a sense of respect in his eyes.

"Yeah, I guess, but it still sucks."

She tapped both of their shoulders. "I can sense someone coming down the hall. Shall was make a hasty escape?"

They nodded eagerly, not wanting to stay as culprits for the mass of paint all over the room.

"AUUGHH! WHO DID THIS?!"

In the flash, they were gone.

Laughter erupted between them as they sat down on the steps, chattering about the poor soul who found the aftermath of their prank.

"Now, now, put that disaster behind us," Kakashi said easily, sitting on the rail. "Let's began with introducing ourselves."

"Like what, sensei?" she chirped, propping her chin in her palm.

"You know, your likes, dislikes, dreams for the future and stuff like that."

"You go first, sensei!" Naruto demanded excitedly. "Tell us how you got that Sharingan in your eye!"

Kakashi's lone eye widened by a fraction. "Well, looks like I've got quite the team eh? But that's a story for another time. I'm Hatake Kakashi, I have no desire to tell you my likes or dislikes, dreams for the future, hmm… and I have a lot of hobbies…"

A dead silence traveled through the air.

"Okay!" he clapped his hands, pointing to Naruto. "You're next, blondie."

"All right! I'm Uzumaki Naruto!" he gave a cheek splitting grin. "I like ramen and training with my friends and having sleepovers at Sakura-chan's house! I dislike playing old man games like Shōgi and having dinner at Sasuke-teme's place because they're all cold fishes—"

"What was that, dobe?!"

"—My hobbies are playing pranks and my dream is to become the best Hokage Konoha has ever seen!"

Sakura let a laugh bubble in her throat as Naruto and Sasuke resumed a glaring match, arguing about whether or not the Uchiha clan was a pleasure to eat with.

"All right, moving on," Kakashi cleared his throat. "You, dark and broody, you're up."

Her laugh burst out as Sasuke scowled, and his hand came to smack her upside the head. Cradling her head with tears in the corner of her eyes, she grinned.

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke," he growled, glaring at the both of them before continuing. "I like going for morning runs and training, I dislike having to deal with stupid people and eating sweet food, my hobbies include kenjutsu and studying history, and my dream is to surpass my brother as a shinobi."

"Hm," Kakashi nodded, looking towards her. "And finally, giggly, your turn."

She smiled at the nickname. "I'm Haruno Sakura! I like hanging out with my friends and cooking, I dislike those who crave power over comrades, and my hobbies are playing old man games with Shikamaru and making seals. My dream is to be a field medic and protect people who are close to me."

 _Oh, and save the world._

Kakashi looked thoughtful.

"Okay! Introductions are over. Tomorrow we're going to start our duties as shinobi," he said clearly, "by starting off with survival training with the four of us."

"You're on, Kaka-sensei!" Naruto declared, jumping to his feet. "We can take anything!"

"Really?" he asked ominously. "Even if I told you that out of the twenty-seven graduates, only nine will pass as Genin? This training has a failure of sixty-six percent!"

Sakura got to her feet, Sasuke following soon after. She punched the palm of her other hand, giving Kakashi a feral grin.

"Challenge accepted. Name the time and place, sensei."

After years of being with the man, Sakura had learned to read his expression from the small exposed area of his face. He was excited too.

"Very well. The details are on this paper. Meet me tomorrow in the training grounds and don't eat breakfast—you might throw up."

With that, he disappeared in a plume of smoke.

.

* * *

.

Kakashi was more than surprised.

Although their profiles had indicated the three were close since childhood, he had never imagined it would have ingrained into their shinobi will as well. They were definitely going to be a force to be reckoned with.

He put down the timer on the tree stump, turning to see his potential students watch him back.

 _They have good eyes._

"Start!" he yelled.

Instead of going into hiding, all three charged him with a determined expression, Sakura in the lead. He easily maneuvered around their smaller forms, twisting and turning to dodge their limbs.

They were good. Speed and form wise, Sakura was undoubtedly the best, but the two boys weren't far behind. He couldn't even read his beloved Icha Icha.

"Naruto!" Sasuke called.

"On it! _Kage Bunshin no Jutsu_!"

Five more Naruto's popped into existence, and Kakashi took a moment to appreciate their coordination. This team was it.

They charged him with loud cries as Sakura and Sasuke jumped back to create space. They both flashed through quick seals and brought a hand over their mouth.

" _Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!_ "

" _Gamayudan no Jutsu!"_

A great fireball erupted from Sasuke's mouth as Sakura released a torrential blast of thick oil—straight towards him. The entire training ground erupted in augmented flames, and Kakashi slid underground with a quick earth jutsu, shielding himself from most of the heat.

Before he could decide on his next move, the ground split open around him, forcing Kakashi to leap into the open air. He stared, wide-eyed, as Sakura's foot decimated the entire field.

A heavy force rammed into him from behind, and he turned to see Naruto grabbing onto his back, a wicked grin on his face.

"Got you, sensei!"

His hand reached for the bells on his waist, and Kakashi prepared for a substitution, but realized that the entire training field was burning in flames. Option two, then.

Turning to look Naruto in the eye, he placed a wide scale genjutsu over the boy that showed him grabbing the bells and releasing his hold.

Naruto blinked, his grasp loosening as both fell towards the ground.

"Genjutsu, Sasuke!"

"I got him!"

Sasuke leaped after Naruto's falling form, catching the blonde before he could hit the ground. Sakura ran towards him, her speed startling his expectations. It seemed that every time he made a conclusion about this girl, she'd continue to break it. He briefly heard Sasuke force Naruto out of the genjutsu, and decided to act.

How about a separation?

Creating two clones, he sent them after the boys, splitting them up into different areas of the field while he focused on the coral haired girl. She shunshined behind him, stomping her foot right where he stood moments before. The earth groaned under her attack, cracking and giving into her strength as he flickered away.

She was exceedingly fast, and wondered why none of this was written in her profile. It was as if he was fighting Shisui during his Anbu days.

Secretive girl.

As if realizing that one-on-one wasn't going to end well, she flickered backwards and away, heading right towards Sasuke. Their sudden combination caught his clone off guard as a well-placed palm strike from Sakura burst him from existence. Wordlessly, the two moved onto Naruto, eventually overpowering the second clone as well.

In a swift movement, Sakura grabbed both Sasuke and Naruto by the collar of their shirts and vanished into the burning trees.

A tactical regroup and retreat, eh?

It took a moment of wonder as Kakashi gazed around the destroyed training ground, noting the broken blocks of earth and the fire that seemed to rage strong. To his own surprise, his breathing had quickened and his Sharingan was spinning behind his headband, aching to be used.

Since when had he ever gotten a good fight from Genin?

Spreading out his senses, he felt the three of them clustered a hundred feet to his left. He lifted his headband by an inch, allowing his Sharingan to gaze at their chakra levels.

Naruto's, as he assumed, was massive and still raging like the sun. Sasuke was down by a fourth, and Sakura was also brimming with energy, her reserves going far deeper than he first thought. Impressive.

The group suddenly split and Kakashi lowered his headband, anticipating their next attack.

Sasuke came running out first, launching a barrage of kunai in his direction. He leaped right, letting the weapons fly by harmlessly onto the tree. The bushes rustled behind as Naruto leaped out, yelling in defiance. The two boys worked rather seamlessly, attacking and defending at given intervals, and soon enough, Sakura joined the fray.

She came from above slashing out with a kunai, and he leaped back to dodge it. All three charged him once more, pushing him closer and closer towards the river. When Sasuke's fingers got a little too close to the bells, Kakashi began his counterattack, quickly kicking Naruto and Sakura in the stomach, and sending Sasuke flying back with an elbow.

All three disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Startled, he made to move, but was frozen on the spot. The ground glowed beneath his feet and he stared down, noticing the complicated array of seals where he stood.

 _Sakura._

Sure enough, the real Sakura came forth, her hands together in a seal. "You can thank Shikaku-san for this seal, sensei!"

She raised her right hand in the air, and his own hand moved to copy her, leaving the bells wide open. The river burst from behind him, and Sasuke and Naruto leaped out, drenched but grinning madly.

Kakashi poured a sharp spike of chakra into the seal, trying to break it, but it quickly died as the letters glowed even brighter.

Chakra absorption.

He felt a laugh bubble in his throat as Naruto and Sasuke snatched a bell each from his waist, and ran to where Sakura stood. She released the seal, and the circle disappeared into the dirt.

"We did it! We did it!" Naruto cheered, swinging Sakura in a massive bear hug. "It worked!"

A melodious laugh filled the air as all three Genin stood, completely disheveled, soaked in river water and dirty, but utterly triumphant.

"So what's it going to be, sensei?" Sakura asked, slinging her arms around the two boys. "You take all of us, or none of us."

Kakashi felt his lips tug into a smile behind the mask, and his eye crinkled mischievously. "Aah. You all pass."

 _Watch over me, Minato-sensei. I'm going to make this team great._


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: This note is long, but do read through it before you get to the chapter! Since the snippets are jumping around in time, I've decided to add a chronological list that goes with Sakura's age in case you find yourself confused. I'll update this every chapter. However, I always do make sure to add a time indication so check for those as you read!

First Timeline:

17 — Sasuke kills Naruto, throws world into chaos.  
23 — Sakura masters Edo Tensei and summons Jiraiya, Obito, and Itachi.  
26 — Travels back in time.

Second Timeline:

5 — Sakura arrives back in time. Enters the academy, befriends Naruto and Sasuke.  
7 — Shikamaru loses the shogi bet, begins training with the three.  
8 — Sakura kills Danzo and saves Shisui. Three weeks later, she engages Obito and Itachi intervenes.  
10 — Orochimaru attacks Itachi and Shisui's ANBU squad in an attempt to take their body. Fails. Defects from Akatsuki. Itachi awakens his Mangekyo Sharingan, and five months later, his disease is cured.  
11 — Sakura pummels Neji into the ground. Literally.  
12 — Academy graduation. Team Seven is formed.

Hopefully things are more clear now! Moving onto some common questions:

1\. Can Sakura summon Ibuse?  
\- No. Salamanders are actually a type of amphibians, not reptiles. However, some lizards are highly venomous as well, which is why I chose them. And can you imagine a colossal boss lizard summon? Godzilla right there.  
2\. How have Itachi and Shisui not figured her ANBU identity out?  
\- It was briefly mentioned, but Sakura has a seal that distorts her chakra signature when she releases her limiters to fight at full power. She also alters her voice with chakra. The only reason Itachi was able to link her Hiraishin seal back to her was because the Sharingan imprinted the image of her seal into his memory.  
3\. Why didn't Sakura summon Minato as well from the Toad Scroll?  
\- Her main objective was to learn the details of past events in order to change it, not learn Fuinjutsu. Minato died early, so he had absolutely no idea about Obito, Akastuki, or even Danzo, and what they were doing.  
4\. Pairings?  
\- Like I said in chapter 1, romance is not my main focus for this story. You are free to suggest it, but I probably won't get to it until the very end.

Quick info: Whenever you see a full line break, there has been a change in time, POV, and/or event. When you see "...", it only means a change in time, but usually within the same event.

Warning: I have no beta. Beware of mistakes that I might have missed. Happy reading!

El

* * *

Chapter 3

.

The wind tore through her clothes as Sakura ran, her feet digging into the sandy dunes of Wind Country. Kakashi was right behind her, panting from exhaustion.

"Did we lose Shukaku?" she gasped, glancing behind her shoulder as if the one-tailed beast would burst from the sand.

Kakashi stopped, heaving and injured from briefly engaging the tailed beast. "I think you've brought us far enough, but Sasuke must have seen us through Shukaku's eyes. We can't linger long."

The deep bitterness that once came with Sasuke's name was now gone. It had been five years since Sasuke killed Naruto in cold blood, forcing her and Kakashi to be constantly moving around.

"I'm sorry," she said sincerely, placing a glowing green hand to his bloody shoulder. "I should have realized Shukaku would be guarding the remains Suna."

He grunted. "Not your fault, Sakura. We both failed to notice him."

Forcing back her tears, Sakura nodded gratefully, resetting the dislocation. "I promise I'll do better. Just give me a little more time—I almost have _Edo Tensei_ perfected, I just need—"

"Sakura," he placed a firm hand on her wrist, looking at her dead in the eye. "Stop putting the world's responsibilities on your shoulders. I'm still here. We're still a team. We're going to get through this together."

She gave a broken sigh, staring at his face. He had long relinquished his trademark mask while on the run, and Sakura was able to perfectly read his determined expression. Dropping her hand as the last of Kakashi's injury stitched itself together, she nodded. "You're right. You always are."

His large hand ruffled her knotted and dirt matted hair, reminding her that they've been on the run for the past four days.

"Let's get going."

Following after his back like old times, Sakura ran after him, giving one last glance over her shoulder.

They traveled through Wind Country over the next few hours, stopping every now and then to scan their surroundings. The wind was picking up, indicating that they were close to the ocean.

A sudden, but faint spike of chakra alerted her senses, and Kakashi stopped as well, feeling the clash of battle.

"Who are they?" Kakashi asked, turning to her.

Sakura closed her eyes, concentrating on the chakra signatures ahead of her. They felt strange, and for a moment, she nearly didn't recognize them.

"Not shinobi," she reopened her eyes, gazing into the distance. "About a kilometer ahead, there's three animals fighting. Summons by the feel of their chakra."

This wasn't an uncommon occurrence. Ever since Sasuke took control of the tailed beasts, the balance of the Elemental Nations was suffering. Even the summoning world and its inhabitants were being affected.

"We're going," she said firmly.

Kakashi grimaced, giving her a side glance. "Sasuke blazed Shikkotsu Forest to the ground. You know the slugs couldn't have survived."

She gritted her teeth at the memory. "I know."

She bounded forward, following the feel of a battle that was slowly starting to dwindle away. By the time Sakura could see the summons, the fight had already been won.

Two large forms were clearly dead against the sand, and one looked scorched beyond recognition. The orange and black stripes along their thick fur indicated a breed of abnormally large tiger summons. Unable to save them, Sakura turned to look at the third animal, eyes widening in surprise.

A giant lizard, well over three meters in length, lay broken and bloody on the sand, but she could clearly see the rise and fall of its back.

It was still alive.

She made to approach when a large hand clasped her shoulder, stopping her advance.

"Sakura," Kakashi warned. "Carefully… He could be hostile."

"I'll be fine," she insisted, looking at him. "But if I'm unable to save _another_ damn living being, then I won't be able to look at myself tomorrow!"

Dark eyes softened and he sighed, releasing his hold. Sakura turned and ran towards the fallen creature, dropping to her knees as she placed a gentle hand on its bloody face. Three wide claw marks covered its left eye, and its body was covered in numerous tears.

A low grumble escaped the lizard and a wisp of hot fire blew out. Hoping that it wouldn't attack her, Sakura worked on healing its face, trying to restore vision to the left eye.

"Shinobi," it hissed, voice deep and venomous. "You dare—"

"Please," she whispered, minding her concentration. "I'm a medic. I want to help you."

His left eye opened, and Sakura was met with the most brilliant shade of amber, staring right into her soul.

"You," he spat through an impressive set of hidden teeth. " _Help me_? Unless you save the world, child, you cannot help me."

"I'm sorry," she muttered, feeling the familiar weight of responsibility again. Sasuke had once been her teammate after all. "I want to save the world too. _I'm trying._ I really am."

His enormous head shifted across the sand to face her, eyes briefly darting to Kakashi in observation. "The prophecy child's aid. Are you it?"

Confusion ran through her. "What?"

"The child is dead but the aid lives on," he continued, eyes boring into her. "Are you the hidden aid to the one who will unite all tailed beasts?"

She gasped as Kakashi murmured a single name behind her, " _Naruto_."

"I—I don't know," she stammered out, blinking rapidly. Aid? An aid to Naruto?

Faster than she thought possible, his giant body moved, mouth snapping to catch a mouthful of her cloak, and his tail wrapped around Kakashi's leg.

With a spike of chakra, Sakura's world turned momentarily black.

It felt like she was being squeezed through a tight tube—almost as if she was using the Hiraishin for the first time. When light returned to her vision, Sakura landed uncoordinatedly on all fours, cloak still captured within the lizard's mouth. Kakashi landed on his rear, grunting at the sudden transportation.

They had been reverse-summoned into a realm.

Gold sand sparkled under her hands as Sakura stared at the ground, unable to believe her own eyes. The wind no longer felt harsh, but cool and gentle. She could hear a river flowing not far off to the right.

"Kanae!" a deep voice barked, grabbing her attention. She turned to see another lizard stalk its way forth. This one was a bright shade of cerulean, and much leaner with dark hazel eyes. "We thought you were dead! It's been two weeks!"

His jaw opened with a snap and Sakura's cloak fell free. "It was those bastard tigers. They tracked me all the way through Wind after their realm fell."

"Hn," he nodded, eyes traveling to her. "And who're they? Shinobi?"

The lizard known as Kanae blinked slowly. "The aid. Tell Tokaseji-sama that I've found the aid."

"This child?" he asked, hazel eyes moving to her.

"Katei, _now._ "

Giving another glance, the lizard scurried away. Sakura followed his path up a grand hill, noting a colossal temple standing at the peak. It was beautifully ornate with gentle curves and pillars, Sakura nearly gasped at the sight of it.

"Why have you brought us here?" Kakashi suddenly asked, tone clipped and wary. "And why do you keep calling Sakura the aid?"

"Sakura," the lizard repeated, slowly walking up the side of the hill. She had never finished healing him, causing him to track blood as he walked. "A rather generic name for the aid. Can't be helped though. Follow me."

She threw Kakashi a glance, swallowing back a sudden sense of nervousness. With a nod, the two followed Kanae's large form, minding his dragging tail.

"Do you know about… about Naruto?" she asked at last, still struggling with his name.

"No," he replied, not bothering to look up at her. "We know about the aid that was to save the child of prophecy. However, Gamamaru never heard our side of the tale. Now, Mount Myōboku has been razed to the ground, and the prophecy child is gone."

She felt her heart still. "What do you mean, _save the child of prophecy_? Naruto's—he's dead! I—I couldn't save him!"

"Do I look like a sage to you, child?" Kanae snapped, his long forked tongue slipping out. "It was a tale told to us long ago. Tokaseji-sama spoke the second half of the great prophecy, but it never reached the ears of the Sage of Six Paths. She spoke of a healer beyond all predecessors, able to command time and space, or destroy it."

Sakura's mouth went dry. "Did—did I fail? Was it due to my incompetence that I've destroyed history and let the child of prophecy die?"

She always thought that she could have intervened during the fight in the Valley of the End. Sasuke was too preoccupied with Naruto. She could have snuck behind and gave the finishing blow, saving him.

"Save your questions," Kanae ordered. "Tokaseji-sama has been expecting you."

Sakura clamped her mouth shut, turning to look at the large double doors before her. The temple was _enormous._ It hadn't been obvious from far away, but Sakura thought that even if Katsuyu's full body was stacked twice, it still would have been able to fit inside the temple.

The golden-red doors swung open in a smooth rotation, and Sakura stepped in after Kanae, eyes trailing to the animal at the far end of the room.

"Tokaseji-sama," Kanae lowered his head.

Her scales were the purest color of red that Sakura had ever seen, with yellow and black stripes running across her neck. Dorsal plates protruded down her spine in a deadly path to her tail, and pitch black eyes stared back at her, aged with wisdom and experience.

"Our prophecy child's aid," she spoke, voice deep and melodious. It resounded through the entire room, making her sound surreal. "I've been waiting for you."

.

* * *

.

"I want to go."

Haruno Mebuki looked down at her daughter in surprise. "We'll be gone for two months. Are you sure?"

Sakura nodded firmly, thinning her lips into a determined line. "I want to see what Suna is like."

Which was a big fat lie, but her mother didn't need to know that.

It wasn't the first time Sakura had asked to accompany her parents on their many business trips, but this was the first since she started the Academy last year. She had just turned six, and it was an opportunity she could not pass.

For Naruto.

Mebuki pursed her lips. "If you want, dear. Just let Iruka-sensei know that you'll be out for a while."

Satisfied that she had agreed, Sakura nodded in excitement. "Okay, I'll tell him tomorrow!"

Informing Iruka was an easy matter. He had sighed disapprovingly, muttering about all the lessons she would be missing, but let her off anyway. He knew she was smart enough to catch up when she returned.

Telling Naruto and Sasuke was harder. She had created a tentative friendship with the two boys last year, and it had grown into something much stronger.

After much prodding and complaining, they both agreed to see her again within two months.

Sakura packed diligently when the day of departure came, and she made sure to seal everything she could possibly need inside an inconspicuous storage scroll.

"Ready?"

Glancing up at her geared up parents, she nodded quickly, taking her mother's hand.

The trip to Suna was a long one. By shinobi standards, the distance between the two villages was about three days—two if they were especially fast. At civilian speed, the trip to the renowned sand village took an entire week.

In retrospect, Sakura hadn't minded all that much. She sat in the back of her father's merchant wagon with all his goods, contemplating her plans for the future.

She knew she couldn't let Gaara slip past her fingers if she could help it. He was Naruto's first friend to truly understand him as a jinchūriki; and after seeing firsthand at how Konoha treated Naruto, she could only imagine the loneliness and pain Gaara must be going through.

She also understood that she couldn't do much for him but offer a temporary two-month friendship. Unless she murdered the current Kazekage himself and caused a nation wide crisis, Yashamaru would ultimately betray Gaara on his Kage's orders, starting him on his road to madness.

Sighing, Sakura toyed with her candy floss hair, determination bubbling in her chest. She had decided long ago that even if she couldn't prevent everything, she could help ease the pain—Gaara was no exception.

After seven days of toiling on the road, they finally arrived in Suna. She was sweaty, disheveled and felt in need of a good bath as they passed through the streets, but Sakura kept a keen eye out anyway, looking for a familiar head of red that marked her future Kazekage.

When her current scan returned empty, Sakura didn't allow a sense of disappointment fill her.

She was going to find him one way or another.

The following morning after she had been freshly washed and changed into heat friendly clothes, Sakura left the confines of her temporary home. Her parents would travel to all their business partners within the village, spending the entire day trading goods, updating contracts and exchanging pleasant greetings. Sakura was all too happy to skip out on it.

She immediately ran to the streets, taking in the cool autumn air of the desert. Suna was very much as she remembered it when she first came to save Kankuro, and Sakura had no problems committing each street to memory.

It wouldn't do her any good to get lost.

It had taken her nearly an hour of wandering around the large village before she finally felt his unique chakra signature. It had been so long since she last felt it, but the chakra of a jinchuriki was unmistakable.

Walking a few steps east, she made her way to one of the many play areas in Suna, finally spotting the boy she had come looking for. A quick sensory scan of her surroundings proved that only one hidden Anbu was in the area, which had to be Yashamaru.

Gaara was sitting on one of the wooden swings, staring at the group of four boys that were kicking around a ball twenty meters ahead.

To her relief, the left side of his forehead was still unmarked.

Looking back and forth in a look of contemplation, Sakura finally ran towards Gaara, snagging the swing right next to him.

"Hi," she chirped, unable to believe how adorable he looked as a child—as adorable as Naruto and Sasuke. "Can I swing with you?"

His head snapped towards her in a startled manner, eyes wide. "You... you will play with me?"

"Sure!" She grinned. "I like playing on the swings. Say, you have really pretty hair. What's your name?"

He seemed shocked for another moment before lowering his gaze, his name barely a whisper. "Gaara."

"I'm Haruno Sakura," she slowly put her hand forth, minding his sand. "Like my hair, you know?"

He stared at her appendage as if it was alien, before slowly putting his own hand in her grasp.

"I... I've never seen you," he said slowly, and Sakura caught his underlying words. She didn't recognize his name and run in fear.

"Cause I just came to Suna yesterday," she explained, releasing his sandy hand. "I'm from Konoha, but I'll be here for the next two months with my parents."

"Oh," he breathed, a hint of relief in his tone.

Sakura felt her heart constrict. The first time she had befriended Naruto, he had reacted very much the same—albeit in a very Naruto-like fashion.

She gave her brightest smile. "So let's be friends, okay? I don't have any friends here yet, you can be my first!"

He blinked rapidly, looking down again. "Okay."

She gave a mischievous grin. "You know what friends do, Gaara? They push each other on the swings! So help me!"

She made a rocking motion with her legs, showing that her feet couldn't quite reach the ground. Curse her small body.

"Me?" He looked confused.

"Yes, you!" She urged. "Who do you think's going to push me otherwise, the wind?"

She had meant it to be a joke, but he simply have her a bewildered stare in return. With hesitant steps, he walked behind her, hands outstretched but not touching her back.

He looked wary, and Sakura understood. Everything he touched somehow died.

"Like this?" He asked softly, giving her a slight nudge.

She made an impatient face. "A little more! I'll push you after I show you something cool!"

Taking the encouragement, his small hands planted firmly on her back as he gave her a well-placed push, sending her swing up with a laugh of glee. "Again!"

Back and forth, he pushed her higher and higher into the air until Sakura was ready to fly off. She glanced back down at him, catching his wide green eyes in awe.

"Watch this, Gaara!"

Using the momentum of her swing, she let go of the chains and felt her rear slide off the wooden seat. She flew in the air with a loud whoop, landing a dozen feet away onto the dirt ground.

She marked the area with a drag of her foot and turned back to the boy. "See that? _That's_ how you really play on the swings! See how far I got?"

He nodded.

"I'll push you next!" She ran back. "You have to try and beat my landing score!"

"O-Okay," he answered, going back to his own swing.

With gentle hands, she gave him a soft push at first, testing his sand's reaction. Satisfied that there was none, she gave him another push, stronger this time. Again and again, Sakura raised him higher into the air, giving one last shove before running under his feet. She ran to where she marked her landing, looking back at him.

"Try it!" She waved her arms excitedly. "Since it's your first time, I'll catch if you fall!"

She knew without a doubt that his sand would automatically protect him, but it was the sentiment that hit him. Hopefully.

Giving her a hesitant nod, Gaara let go of the chains, and soon enough, he was airborne.

He let out a soft gasp of surprise as the wind rushed through his face and clothes, and he landed smoothly onto the ground, a few feet away from her.

"You were so cool!" She gushed, grinning like a loon. Who would have thought she would ever see her stoic Kazekage fly off from swings? "Wasn't it fun?"

At last, her hard work seemed to pay off as a small smile made way to his face. "Yeah."

"You didn't beat my score though, so you have to try again!" She declared. "But me first!"

She ran back to their swings, and soon enough, a routine was born.

By the end of the day, Gaara had gotten far better at the game and was flying further and further with every lift off. He even gave a laugh of glee every now and then.

Mission successful.

As the sun was beginning to set, Sakura looked up from her seat on the swing. "It's getting late, so I have to go home now. Can we play again tomorrow?"

He looked devastated. "You're leaving?"

"Just for the night," she reassured. "So? Will you be here tomorrow?"

He looked down, eyes filled with sadness. "If... if you will, I'll come too."

"We're friends!" She declared boldly. "Of course I'll be here."

He gave a shy smile before nodding. "Okay. See... see you tomorrow, Sakura."

Lifting her arms so that he could see what she was doing, Sakura wrapped him in a full body hug of warmth. She had done the same to Naruto on their first day of friendship, and even coerced Sasuke into it a few times.

Gaara stiffened ever so slightly, but she held on.

"You're a good friend, Gaara," she smiled, letting him go. "I'll see you tomorrow!"

Waving her hand, she turned on her heel and ran out of the park, looking back once to give a final wave.

The poor boy looked overwhelmed, but Sakura had felt satisfied for the day. One thing at a time, she was going to make her future shine.

...

"Sakura?"

She glanced up from the dirt castle she was building, tilting her head in anticipation.

"Hm?"

Gaara seemed to hesitate to before asking, "why do you think no one loves me?"

She felt her heart break and Sakura fought back the urge to cry.

"What do you mean? I love all my friends and you're definitely my friend!" She protested.

He shook his head. "People look at me with... with those eyes... and they call me a monster."

"You're not a monster," she said firmly, grabbing his shoulders. His sand jostled in surprise but made no move to bind her.

He scrunched his face. "Then why did those kids yesterday not want to play with us?"

She grimaced. She had hoped to give Gaara some friends in Suna as she had only one more month in the village, but it had proved to be difficult. The villagers reacted to him the same way they had to Naruto, but Gaara had his sand in retaliation.

He easily hurt them back, with or without his consent.

Sighing, she lowered her hands. "Sometimes, Gaara, people fear what they don't understand. The fear turns into paranoia, and paranoia turns into hatred. It's an easy cycle for humans to fall into."

"Because I can control sand?" He whispered, as if villagers would come out to murder him if they heard the statement.

She nodded. "They're afraid that you could hurt them."

He clutched the area over his heart. "But I don't want to hurt them. Yashamaru told me physical pain isn't a good feeling."

She gently placed her hand on his. "Then you should learn to control your sand. If people know that you won't hurt them by accident, the cycle can be broken."

"It's... It's hard though," he admitted. "It doesn't want to listen to me."

"Gaara," she smiled softly, "do you know what the two most strongest feelings in the world are?"

He blinked.

"One is hate, and the other is love," she revealed. "One cannot exist without the other, but they are both something that can greatly strengthen a person's will."

He nodded slowly. "Yashamaru told me love could heal emotional scars."

"He's right," she affirmed. "Hate can create emotional scars, and love can heal them. In order to heal though, you have to choose love."

"H-How?"

"Find something you treasure," she said. "Remember I told you about Naruto and Sasuke back in Konoha? Because I love both of them, I want to protect them. The will to protect helps me get stronger."

"And the will to hate can also make you stronger," he murmured.

A bad taste settled in her throat as she remembered Sasuke's path to revenge, and she nodded.

"It can," she agreed. "But in the end, you'll be left with no one but yourself. So you have to get stronger with love."

A soft blush ran across his cheeks. "So I can protect my friends."

"Yes!" She smiled, ruffling his hair. "I know you can do it."

"Okay. I will try."

...

"T-Today?" His eyes widened with shock, the ball dropping into the ground.

Sakura gave a firm nod. "I'm leaving right now. I came to say bye."

"No, you can't!" He blurted loudly, and sand erupted around him, mirroring his alarmed state of mind.

There were screams as people who were nearby ran the other direction, and children fled.

"Gaara! Stop!" She lifted her hands, feeling the sand wrap around her limbs. "You're going to hurt someone!"

He clenched his eyes shut and the sand immediately fell to the ground, lifeless. After a silent minute of concentration, he peeled his eyes open, panting slightly with sudden exhaustion. She lowered her arms, noting that the skin had been slightly torn raw.

Tears welled in his eyes as he gave a small sniff. "I don't want you to say bye."

"I'm not going to say goodbye then," she corrected. "I'm going to say, 'see you later'."

More tears spilled down his cheeks. "Wha—what do you mean?"

"This isn't goodbye forever," she smiled cheerily. "We'll see each other some other day, I promise. You said you'll visit Konoha too, remember?"

He sniffed. "But I won't see you tomorrow."

"Then you'll just have to get stronger without me for a little while," she said softly, wiping his face with her sleeve. "Besides, you'll have Yashamaru and Temari and Kankuro to keep you company."

Which was true. Gaara had been trying hard to bridge the gap between his siblings for the last month as he reigned in his control over the sand. Sakura was ultimately hoping that his will to protect them would stop his father from ordering Yashamaru's betrayal, but she couldn't linger forever to find out.

He gave a feeble nod.

Digging through her right pocket, Sakura tugged on a leather string. A small wooden charm no bigger than a thumbnail hung in the middle of it, and she thrust it at Gaara with a grin. "It's for you! I made it!"

His tears immediately stilled as he stared at the bracelet with owlish eyes. "What is it?"

"It's a friendship bracelet, Gaara! I made one for you and one for me!"

It was half the truth. She had indeed made the bracelet to remind him of her time here, but the wooden charm was a different matter. A complex seal was imbedded into the wood that would lock onto his chakra and alert her whenever his beast containing seal was released. Her Hiraishin was also intertwined, allowing her to come to his side at any time as long as he wore the bracelet.

She had already placed a few around the village in secretive areas, but having one directly on Gaara was reassuring.

"For me?" He repeated.

"Of course for you," she grinned, reaching for his non-dominant wrist. "Here, I'll help you put it on."

She looped the leather band around three times, tying a knot on the underside of his wrist. Pulling out her own bracelet, she handed it to him with a smile.

"Me next!" She stuck out her left hand.

Hesitantly, he took the band from her hand and began to wrap it around, mirroring her movements. When the band had been secured, she gave a slight jingle of her wrist.

"So you can always remember me," she said at last. "And when you come to Konoha, I'll introduce you to Naruto and Sasuke too."

 _You'll be best friends, I promise._

He gave a resigned sigh. "Okay."

Wrapping her arms around him in a tight hug, she inwardly prayed for good fortune, hoping that the next time she saw him, his forehead would still be clean. His arms gave a sad squeeze in return.

"I'll see you later," she said determinedly, releasing him. "When we're both awesome shinobi, you can show me how strong you've gotten."

He nodded, blinking away the last of his tears. "See... see you later, Sakura."

With one last pat to his head, she was gone.

.

* * *

.

The first time Sakura saw Sai, she was nine. Seven months after killing Danzo, she was making her way through the hospital with Sasuke and Naruto after visiting Shisui.

It was a small injury in light of their dangerous Anbu mission, and Sakura was inwardly relieved that he was safe.

The three made their way through the brightly lit hallway, and Sakura spotted a familiar face as she turned a corner.

She stopped abruptly, causing Sasuke to run into her and Naruto to crash into him.

"Oof! Teme! Why'd you gotta stop in the middle of walking?"

"It's Sakura!" Sasuke barked, rubbing the area where his nose bashed into the back of her head. "What are you doing?"

She wasn't exactly paying attention, too caught up with the sight of the boy on the bench. He was sitting with his knees propped up, a large drawing pad in his lap. His dark eyes glanced up at the noise, meeting her gaze.

The mere fact that Sai was alive and out in public like any normal child said enough. Sakura had purposely left Root alone for the Hokage's decision, hoping he would read all about Danzo's inhumane ways and finally do something to change that.

Maybe she had calculated correctly.

"Hi!" She grinned, a sense of warmth in her chest. As socially stunted Sai was, he was still a crucial part of her Team Seven. "This is probably sudden, but you really look like my friend, Sasuke!"

The two boys whipped their heads around to face Sai, eyes calculating. After a beat, Naruto burst out in laughter, smacking Sasuke's shoulder as he made a face of offense.

"She's right, teme! He looks like your long lost twin!"

"Does not!" He argued, eyeing the boy again. "He... he's too pale!"

Sakura bound towards him, still smiling. "What's your name? Sasuke doesn't recognize you so you can't be an Uchiha."

"I am called Sai," he said simply, blinking at her. "And I am not an Uchiha."

"See!" Sasuke elbowed Naruto. "Long lost twin, yeah right!"

"I'm Sakura!" She introduced, then pointed two the boys behind her. "That's Naruto and Sasuke."

"It's nice to meet you," he said mechanically, and she nearly faltered at how fake it sounded. Current Sai was clearly not as practiced as the future Sai.

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Bro, you sound so... not enthusiastic."

He looked clearly surprised at the notion. "Oh. Can I try again?"

A dead silence filled the air as Sai cleared his throat, gave the most fakest of smiles, and repeated, "It's nice to meet you all."

Even Sasuke didn't look impressed. "Are you serious?"

Sakura burst into laughter. "Oh, Sai, you're so adorable!"

Sasuke and Naruto gave her a look as if she was insane.

"I don't understand," he admitted, "is this supposed to be a compliment?"

"Of course!" She cheered, sitting next to him. "So tell me, Sai, what are you doing here?"

He tilted his head as if in thought. "I'm here with my brother."

Sakura nearly froze.

Shin.

So the man Sai had grown to admire was still alive. That meant Sakura had killed Danzo before he ordered their fight to the death. And the fact that Shin was brought into the hospital meant another thing—Sarutobi was really taking care of Root.

"Oh, I hope he gets better soon," she tapped his cheek. "You're a nice person to wait for him."

He didn't say anything, opting to look at her with a quizzical gaze.

"So Sai!" Naruto bellowed. "What year are you at the Academy? I've never seen you."

Blinking, he turned his attention to Naruto. "I don't go to the Academy."

"Eh?" He frowned.

"I'm part of the Hokage's _Shinobi Restoration Program_."

Naruto made a face. "I've, um, never heard of that."

"That's because only a select group of Shinobi were selected for it," he replied passively.

 _Root_ , Sakura thought.

"What's it for?" She asked curiously.

"According to the Hokage, it's so Shinobi can learn to love life again," he answered.

Sasuke looked appalled. "That sounds kinda dumb, no offense. What on earth do you even do?"

Sai didn't seem to take offense at all. "I spend the day drawing and talking to many other elder Shinobi. My current sensei talks about his love for written porn and taught me many things."

Sakura almost screamed. Kakashi was still in Anbu, and the Hokage thought it was wise of him to teach emotionally stunted Root Shinobi how to love life again? That man was socially stunted as well! He was a war veteran as a child that was still suffering from long suppressed PTSD. If anything, _he_ needed to be in the Shinobi Restoration Program.

Sasuke and Naruto made a face of disbelief.

"What?" Naruto yelled. "You can't be learning weird things from some pervert!"

Sai didn't seem to have a problem. "I'm learning very eye-opening things from senpai."

Sasuke choked.

"Well... if you say so," Naruto muttered, looking far from convinced.

"Anyway, Sai!" She smiled, placing her hands on his shoulders. "It was good meeting you! If you ever want to eat or train with us, you and your brother are more than welcome to! We're at Ichiraku's every Friday for dinner!"

He grew slightly wide-eyed, then turned to scribble something in the corner of his drawing pad.

"This is what they call, 'an invitation to friendship', correct?"

Sakura quickly caught herself, nodding eagerly. "Exactly!"

He turned to her, deadly serious. "Thank you for the invitation, I will take upon your offer soon."

 _That still sounded so fake and practiced, Sai..._

Fighting the urge to sigh, Sakura ruffled his dark hair, getting up from the bench.

"Okay, see you around!"

She gave him a wave as Naruto and Sasuke gave a hesitant wave and nod in farewell.

Walking down the rest of the corridor, Sakura pushed open a door to the stairwell.

"What a weird guy," Naruto mumbled. "Doesn't he know how to... I don't know how to describe it!"

"Talk normally?" Sasuke inputted. "He's a bit awkward."

Sakura shrugged. Maybe the Hokage hadn't been so wrong with Kakashi after all. Who was better to understand the emotional conditioning of Root than Anbu members themselves? Although Kakashi was inwardly scarred, he still had attachments to normal life, his friends, dreams, and hobbies. That's what Sai and the others needed—to know that it was possible to carry out missions efficiently while still retaining an identity.

"I think he's an interesting fellow," she grinned. "This won't be the last we see of him, I can feel it."

.

* * *

.

A lance slid across the wooden board as Sakura concluded her story about how Naruto and Sasuke managed to break a hole through the wall they were supposed to paint. D-rank missions were on the list of things she definitely hadn't missed.

"Mah, that sounds so troublesome," Shikamaru muttered, moving his knight.

It was a defensive tactic that Sakura was familiar with. She moved her lance again, calculating the number it moves it would take to corner him.

The first time Shikamaru won a game from her, they were ten. She had been utterly caught off guard and preceded to groan about how she, a highly intelligent thirty-one year old woman, was bested by an Academy student.

Refusing to lose, at least until the boy got older, she delved her small amount of free time into learning and analyzing tactical plans with zeal.

Shikamaru had only taken four more games from her since.

"Tell me about it," she grumbled. "I don't know how many more D-ranks I can take. Naruto and Sasuke are also complaining if they're not working."

"Hn," he grunted. "Asuma-sensei's been quite relaxed about our missions but we've been doing D-ranks as well. It's troublesome but necessary. Check."

Inwardly cursing, she scanned the board, moving her pieces accordingly until the two were more or less on even ground. The kid was getting better and better every day.

She glanced up, finding something shiny catch her eye. "Shikamaru, have you always had your ears pierced?"

"Hah?" He touched his ear, as if forgetting something was there. "Oh, yeah. It's a tradition in our clan to pass down knob earrings from parent to child, as a symbolism of our oath to protect Konoha. Ino, Chouji and I got them when we graduated."

"Interesting," she murmured, mind spinning with possibilities. She wanted something special for Team Seven too, but finding an accessory with meaning was difficult. "Have any suggestions? I'm thinking of something for my team."

He shrugged. "Dunno. You'd probably be better off asking Ino about that kind of stuff."

Sakura nearly winced at the name. In this timeline, Ino never got a chance to save her from the bullies and develop a friendship. She had tried countlessly to rekindle a bond, but the blonde had considered her an adamant rival for Sasuke's love.

She sighed. "I don't think Ino likes me very much."

"Ah, right," he nodded, as if remembering. "Says you stole her Sasuke-kun."

"Wouldn't know why she'd think that," she grumbled. "Tell her to pursue Sasuke herself. I'll gladly get out of the way."

He smirked. "I don't think Sasuke's going to be very thankful, you know? What happened to protecting your friends?"

"On a second thought, tell her to keep her hands off," she chuckled. "Check."

Shikamaru immediately analyzed the board, his keen mind folding through dozens of different possibilities.

"By the way, tell your father thanks for the tip."

"Tell me what, Sakura-chan?"

She cocked her head back until her neck hurt, watching as Shikaku slid into the room with a raised brow. He deposited his mission bag and walked over to their game, glancing at it with an amused smile. "She's got you pretty well trapped, Shikamaru."

The boy grunted in response, choosing not to reply.

"For your advice on reproducing a seal version of the _Kagemane no Jutsu_ ," she clarified. "I got it to work on Kakashi-sensei."

"I hardly gave you anything but a demonstration Sakura-chan, you know your smarts helped you figure it out," Shikaki drawled. "So how'd the execution go?"

"As expected," she nodded, moving her general. Eight more moves. "I had Sasuke and Naruto corner him towards the seal, activated it with Yin release and had him copy my moves. The chakra absorption seal also worked soundly."

He gave a lazy smile. "Impressive, if I must say. Is it ready for practical use?"

She shook her head. "The range of the seal is only about a meter in diameter for now. It'll be an extra burden to have to force the victim on top of it. I also can't move once it's activated or they'll walk right off the seal. Not very practical."

"I see," he ruffled her hair, messing up her side part. "Regardless, I'm quite surprised you managed to make it your own."

"Thank you," she smiled, moving her final piece. "Checkmate."

Shikamaru groaned, mumbling something under his breath. He gave her a stare, nodding to silently admit that he accepted his loss.

She nodded back, putting her pieces back in order. "Shikaku-san? As an experienced shinobi, what do you think is the most comfortable and non-burdening type of accessory?"

He raised an eyebrow at the inquiry, cleaning up his son's side of the board as he moped. "Depends on what you're going for, but I'd lean towards something that can be easily hidden or close to the skin. Nothing dangling. Even our earrings have a high chance of getting caught in things."

She tapped her lips in thought. "So something like a wrist band?"

"That'd be good. What are you considering this for?"

"For my team!" she said excitedly. "I wanted us to have something physical that brings us together."

He nodded slowly. "Why don't you have something additive to it? As much as it's nice to have team jewelry, it's a little sad when it doesn't do anything, especially for shinobi."

Sakura's mind sparked with an idea, and her eyes grew wide. "Shikaku-san you're a genius! I can totally do this!"

She leaped to her feet, thoughts flying at a hundred miles an hour. "I'll see you later, Shikamaru! I'm off!"

"I want a rematch!" he shouted back, voice bouncing through the hall.

"Later!" she replied, excitement bubbling in her chest. In a flicker, she was out of the Nara compound.

.

* * *

.

Another rumble sounded through the air as if an explosion blew in the distance, and Shisui shot his closest friend and cousin a long stare. "So? Are we going to check it out or what?"

Itachi looked uninterested, but he knew better. "Leave them be."

"Oh, come on!" he urged. "It's been happening for the last two months! Don't you think we should at least go see who's been destroying field after field?"

"No."

"Aw, fine! I'll just go on my own, then. Hopefully nothing will go wrong, right?" he yelled over his shoulder, catching Itachi's eye twitch.

The Uchiha heir sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose before giving him a glare that would have sent any lesser man running with full speed. But Shisui was not one of those men.

"Fine."

"All right, let's go!" he cheered, jumping from roof to roof.

The two neared the outskirts of the compound where the Naka River was gently beginning to grow wide, and Shisui felt a familiar chakra signature. Turning to his cousin, he could tell that he felt it too.

They neared the sound of the explosion, jumping into a field that housed an enormous crater along the ground and a small pink girl standing in the middle of it, panting slightly.

He grinned. "Sakura-chan! So it's you who's causing this entire ruckus! Aha, I should have known!"

He shunshined in front of her and slipped his hands under her arms, throwing her into the air like he would have done to a child.

"Shisui-san how long are you going to do this?" she demanded, trying to knee him in the face. "I'm too old for this!"

"Yeah, but not too tall," he countered. He'd probably do it as long as he had arms.

She pushed off his shoulder, landing a good dozen feet away. "What are you two doing here, anyway?"

"Sakura," Shisui said, drawing out her name as if it was so obvious. "You're so close to the old Uchiha compound. Of course we'd hear you blowing up the entire field. What are _you_ doing, trying out exploding tags by the dozen?"

She cheeks grew slightly red. "No, I'm testing out a seal! I'm by the Naka River just incase the explosions get out of hand—I, well, hadn't meant to disturb you guys."

Itachi waved a hand. "Hardly any of the Uchihas live in the compound anyway. Hence, it being _old._ "

Shisui felt a sense of intrigue at the girl's disarranged appearance. "So, my brilliant minded Sakura-chan, what have you made up this time?"

Sighing softly, she led the way to a clean area of the field where all her scrolls were laid out. "I'm making a chakra storage seal that can be used in emergency purposes, and fashion it as a wrist band for my team as a gift. It'll house normal chakra on one side and healing chakra on the other."

She presented her latest scroll, showing them the complicated structures of her design.

Shisui had no idea what all those scribbles and lines meant, and from the look of Itachi's blank stare, he didn't either.

"So what's the problem?" he asked, wanting to be helpful anyway.

She gave a frustrated grunt, blowing the bangs from her eyes. "My _problem,_ is when I use physical energy to activate the seal containing the healing chakra, it causes it to blow up. There's some sort of leak in my seal that's forcing them to interact, and not activate."

"What sort of energy is healing chakra most comprised of?" Itachi asked.

She slumped down onto the stump of a tree, rubbing away at her soft burns. "It's a mix of both but it uses more spiritual, hence, why I picked physical energy to activate it. Only, it ends up absorbing it, overloading it, then exploding."

"So you need some kind of filter to stop it from absorbing?" Itachi inquired, glancing towards him.

Shisui shrugged. "Sorry, Sakura-chan, seals are out of my forte too."

Sakura froze mid-motion, eyes wide and unblinking. There must have been a dozen thoughts running through her head, as her expression seemed to glaze over. She was mumbling something under her breath, too quickly, and with such Fuinjutsu jargon, Shisui couldn't catch most of it.

"Hello? Sakura-chan?"

She whipped out a clean scroll, still muttering quietly while the brush in her hand shot out letters at admirable speed. Within minutes, the entire scroll had been filled with complicated lines. She placed a glowing green hand in the middle of the seal, and Shisui watched with fascination as it absorbed the healing chakra. With a well-practiced habit, his Sharingan flickered to life and he saw her chakra disappear into the infinite space of the seal. A quick glance at Sakura indicted that her chakra levels were low. Alarmingly low. She must have been doing this all night.

Before he could get in a word, she clutched the scroll and ran out into the center of the field, placing it on the ground and pressed two fingers on the edge.

For a moment, nothing happened.

Sakura suddenly bolted back as a large chakra explosion burst into life, the fire burning hot enough to rival his strongest Katon jutsu. His hair whipped back at the sheer wind pressure, and he raised a hand to block the bright light from damaging his sensitive eyes. With a hard blink, his Sharingan disappeared. A canon of water from the Naka River rushed into the air, dousing out the fire before it could spread.

Shisui blinked rapidly, trying to get the after images of the explosions out of his mind. "Ow," he scrunched his eyes. "Sakura-chan, are you okay?"

She appeared in a shunshin, arms smoking but looking more or less in one piece. How she evaded that explosion from point blank, Shisui had no idea.

"Almost," she muttered, bringing out another clean scroll and a brush. "Pentagon conversion… trigram filter… adds to odd… stabilize the barrier…"

Shisui gave his cousin a confused look, and Itachi gave a slight raise on his eyebrow in return. "Is this even safe? I feel like we should tell taichō about this. She's one of his kids after all."

"Is our career safe?" Itachi countered rather sassily.

"Good point," Shisui muttered, watching as Sakura ran down to the crater once more, improved scroll in hand.

Sakura repeated the process, crouching right above the scroll with wide, eager eyes.

Nothing happened.

After a minute of silence, Sakura jumped in the air, screaming and pumping her fists in a very Naruto-like fashion. A huge smile bloomed from ear to ear as she swiped the scroll from the ground and ran back to their place.

"It works! It works! Thank you! I was so stupid to have forgotten it! Thank you!"

"I'm confused as to what you did, but congratulations!" he cheered, frowning and smiling at the same time.

She bolted past them, rummaging through her bag until she pulled out a small, silver wrist cuff. Shisui watched with interest as Sakura took the sealing on the scroll, flipping through a few hand seals and tapped her glowing fingers onto the inside of the band. It gave a soft hum before four large complicated symbols bloomed on the metal, transferring the seal over.

In a poof of smoke, a kage bunshin of Sakura appeared.

"Final test," the real Sakura grinned, snapping the silver cuff on her clone's wrist. She spun a kunai out of her leg bag and slashed her clone's forearm, drawing blood.

Nodding, the clone ran down to the center of the field.

"Spiritual energy!" Sakura commanded.

The training ground flared with the feel of Sakura's chakra, and she grinned triumphantly.

"Physical energy!"

The chakra died and a green glow surrounded the forearm that she had slashed. Within moments, the injury was gone.

"Perfect work, boss!" the clone saluted, running back towards them.

After returning the bracelet, it popped out of existence and Sakura was smiling like she held a cake in her hands.

"That was incredible," Shisui gasped, realizing the implications of her creation. She had just combated a major problem in the shinobi system: field injuries given to those without a proper medic in the team.

She gave a sheepish chuckle, staggering on her feet slightly. "It took me too long, I'm a little ashamed to admit." She turned to Itachi, eyes brightening. "Here, Itachi-san! I'll give you my first copy as thanks for reminding me of the filter! I probably would have been here until morning otherwise."

She bounded over to him, and Itachi gave out his left wrist in fascination. She snapped it on and it gave a small glow, aligning to his chakra.

"I'm sure I don't have to tell you how it works right?" she laughed. "Good thing you both were…"

She trailed off, and Shisui noticed with alarm that she was falling.

"Sakura!" they both yelled.

Itachi caught her by the arm while he grabbed her shoulder, stopping her collapse.

" _Sheesh_ ," he breathed, righting his grip on her. His Sharingan flickered back to life and Itachi's did the same, seeing the bare amount of chakra left in her system.

"Hn. We should take her back," Itachi murmured, glancing around at the mess of scrolls around them.

"Yeah, but where does she live?"

Itachi blinked in thought. "We can take her to Naruto-kun's place."

Every Anbu knew where the Kyūbi jinchūriki lived. "Right."

In moments, Shisui had cleaned the entire area of stray papers and scrolls, collecting them in his arms in a neat pile. Itachi shouldered Sakura on his back. With a nod, both shinobi flashed out of the clearing, jumping onto the roofs towards the central part of Konoha.

"Man," Shisui whined. "Why is it that _I'm_ the person that wanted to go see but you're the one that walked away with a present?"

Itachi smirked slightly, dark eyes dancing with amusement.

He gave an accusing stare. "Do you even _know_ what filtering means in Fuinjutsu terms?"

"Not at all," he answered honestly.

"I knew it!" Shisui declared, pausing after another dark glare. "I hate you, cousin."

"Mhmm."

The last of their trip was made in silence, and Itachi stopped first, dropping onto Naruto's window ledge. "He's a heavy sleeper. I don't think he'd wake up even if we tried."

Shifting all the scrolls to one side of his arm, Shisui undid the lock on the window and slid it open, slipping inside the room first. He dropped all the papers in a neat pile in the corner of the room while Itachi lowered Sakura onto the bed, limbs crossing over Naruto's.

Neither stirred an inch.

With a quick nod, both were out of the room without the sound and jumping back to the old Uchiha compound. They were both one of the few remaining families who decided against moving out.

Shisui gave his cousin a sly grin. "You get to tell Kakashi-taichō that his student collapsed on our watch."

Itachi glanced at the silver cuff on his wrist, throwing back his own smirk.

"Worth it."

.

* * *

.

"No! No! No! No thank you!" Naruto crossed his arms in clear rejection. "Jiji, I can't stand another D-rank! I need something better!"

"Naruto," Kakashi warned.

"We can handle it!" Naruto insisted. "Our team is going to be the best, you know? We're real shinobi now!"

Sarutobi gave a puff of his pipe before glancing down at a certain scroll. "Fine. If you want it that much, I'll give you a C-rank mission. It's for the protection of a certain individual."

"Eh?" Naruto faltered. "Really? Who is it? A feudal lord? A princess?"

"I'll introduce him now," the Hokage smiled. "Will you come in, Tazuna-san?"

Sakura turned around as the bridge builder walked in, and a sense of déjà vu washed over her.

She exhaled deeply. She would change things this time around. This was going to be a mission to remember.

"Who are these brats? Especially that short one with the stupid face."

Naruto blinked in shock, then rage. "I'll kill you!"

She grabbed the collar of his shirt, holding him back. _A mission to remember indeed._

…

Sakura walked in the middle of the group as they made their way to Wave Country, Naruto leading Tazuna, and Sasuke and Kakashi bringing in the rear.

After months of sleepless nights, frustrating headaches, explosions and the visitation of two Uchihas, she had finally developed her team's wristband with pride. She was waiting for this particular mission as it would lead them out of the village gates and force them to their limits.

She slipped her backpack over to her chest, rummaging until she found the right bag. "Naruto, Sasuke, Kakashi-sensei, I have something for you!"

All three gave her a curious glance as she pulled out three metal cuffs from a brown paper bag, beaming like Christmas had come early.

"Oooh," Naruto gazed at the shiny metal. "It's for us? What is it?"

Sasuke's eyes lit in recognition. "That what Itachi-nii has on his wrist."

"Chakra cuffs," she said proudly. "I made them myself with the help of Isori-san, the blacksmith, to celebrate our formation as a team! And yes, Sasuke, I gave my first one to your brother because he helped me complete it last week."

Kakashi looked interested. "Chakra cuffs? What do they do exactly?"

She turned to him first. "Which hand, Kaka-sensei?"

He presented her his left. Grinning, she took the largest cuff and locked it around his wrist with a snap. There was a pulse of brilliant green chakra before it slowly died off.

"It works in two different ways," she explained animatedly. "I wrote a seal on the underside of the band that will react and lock onto the chakra signature of the wearer. It's combined with a storage seal that has my chakra built into it and can be released, converted, and used when you start to run low in a difficult battle. It activates with spiritual energy. The second is a storage of healing chakra that is separately sealed, and will activate with physical energy. It will automatically began healing any internal and external injuries in cases of emergencies."

Kakashi looked stunned. "That's quite the achievement Sakura. How did you come about this?"

Sakura sheepishly rubbed the back of her head, thinking of an excuse. She had originally considered the idea long ago while lamenting about how more shinobi couldn't achieve the chakra control needed for a Yin Seal that she and Tsunade had. If she could somehow manage to implement the basic principles of the seal in a physical object, she could have saved so many of her friends.

"I was just thinking about a way to store chakra for future uses and ended up creating the seal," she supplied, finding it easier to stick to the truth—albeit, a twisted one. "I'll show you how to store your excess chakra in the seal once mine runs out, but I'm afraid the healing chakra can only be replenished by me or another medic-nin if you use it all."

"Whoa! Me too, Sakura-chan! I want it too!" Naruto jumped forward, presenting his wrist on bouncy feet. "This is so cool!"

She snapped on the metal cuff, watching it glow as it tied down to Naruto's signature. "Done. Sasuke?"

He gave his hand easily, dark eyes shining with interest. She could tell he was eager to test it out.

After snapping on the last band, Sakura smiled in pride as she saw her signature silver cuff hanging snuggly onto their wrists.

"What about you, Sakura-chan?" Naruto suddenly frowned, realizing she had nothing. "You didn't make one for yourself?"

There would be no point of course, since Sakura had a Yin Seal building right on her abdomen. Technically, she had the original and more infinite version of their bracelets but she wasn't going to tell them that.

"It's coming along," she grinned. "I was more worried about finishing it for you guys so I don't mind."

"Thanks Sakura-chan! You're the best!"

Sasuke also muttered a small thank you as he studied the metal, and Kakashi ruffled her hair.

It was more than enough for her.

As the day slipped by, they continued their walk, and Sakura kept her eye out for the Demon Brothers. They had long disappeared out of her sensing range and were undoubtedly waiting some distance ahead.

She was briefly tempted to send lightning chakra to the puddle the moment she saw it, but that would take away from the interrogation Kakashi later did.

So she held back.

The puddle came and went, and just like it had last time, Kakashi's body was slashed apart in a surprise attack. There was also a small genjutsu over the substitution, making it look as if his body had really been torn to pieces.

The things you notice the second time around.

Gearing into action, she watched as Sasuke locked their chain against a tree with a kunai, keeping them held in place.

"Naruto!" she shouted, eyeing the second brother that he was closest to.

Whatever Sakura did to change the circumstances, Naruto burst forward with confidence, kunai in hand. Sasuke dropped onto their linked arms as she dodged under a swipe, and gently tapped the first brother in the stomach with chakra laced fingers.

He cried in pain as his internal organs ruptured from the inside, coughing out blood onto the dirt floor. It was the same attack she used to kill Danzō all those years ago, except with far less chakra.

Naruto and Sasuke tag-teamed the second brother, taking him down in an impressive display of taijutsu.

She was proud of them.

Kakashi suddenly appeared in a cloud of smoke, eye crinkling as he stood between the mess. "Good job, team."

"Kakashi-sensei! You're not dead!" Naruto pointed in alarm, glancing at where he had been ripped to pieces. A bunch of logs lay on the ground.

"Of course not, dobe." Sasuke ripped his kunai from the tree.

"Is everyone alright?" Kakashi glanced around. They all nodded, and his head slowly turned back to the terrified bridge builder. "Tazuna-san. We need to talk."

...

The mission continued just like it had before, and Sakura found herself in deep meditative thought about how to play her cards.

She wanted Zabuza and Haku to live this time around. They had inspired Naruto's nindo to become a shinobi who protects, and in away, she was indebted to them for changing him for the better. However, their association with Gatō was problematic. If he didn't reveal himself and betray Zabuza and Haku in the end, he would continue on with his treacherous ways.

Unless she went out to end him personally.

The thought wasn't a bad one. He was a cruel man that publicly executed Inari's father, tried to overrun Wave's economy, and ultimately attempted to kill his own soldiers—the worst kind of person.

Sakura's stomach burned with distaste. Why was she even hesitating?

"I'll be back!" she suddenly chirped, dashing into the woods.

Naruto looked confused. "Sakura-chan, where—"

"Bathroom!" she hissed. "Girl emergencies okay? No following!"

The blonde went beet red, and she saw Sasuke look the other way while Kakashi pretended that he didn't hear a thing. Ah, men. The excuse worked every time.

She strode deep into the thick forest, careful not to lose her way. When she was sure that there was no one in the immediate area, she bit her thumb, slamming her palm onto the ground.

 _Kuchiyose no Jutsu!_

Sei and Mika appeared under her hand, amber eyes blinking as they awaited her command.

"It's been a while, Sakura-chan," Mika gave a grin. "What's going on?"

She smiled. The twins were one of her favorite summons. "Very soon, we're going to be attacked by Momochi Zabuza and his accomplice, Haku, missing-nins from Kiri. I need you to track them as they escape and find out where their base is. They're working with the shipping tyrant, Gatō, who'll eventually back stab them. I'm going to take him down."

Sei grimaced. "Sounds like another Danzō."

"We got it, Sakura-chan," Mika nodded. "Be safe."

With a parting farewell, the two lizards bolted into the forest, disappearing from sight. Sakura sighed, straightening out her pants and heading back to the main road. She burst from the trees, giving her boys a grin.

"All good to go."

No questions were asked.

The group restarted their walk to Tazuna's house, and Sakura let her mind wander with ideas. She could leave tonight after Kakashi crashed from overuse of the Sharingan, or she could leave in the middle of the day during one of her Tazuna watches.

Lost in her own thoughts, Sakura didn't notice Zabuza's expertly concealed chakra until Kakashi's warning went loose.

"Get down!"

She threw herself onto the floor as his sword sailed over their heads, lodging onto the tree behind them. Zabuza appeared in a flicker, peering over them with sharp eyes.

"Hm," Kakashi straightened his back, rising to his full height. "Missing-nin Momochi Zabuza of Kiri."

The tension was thick, and Sakura felt her heart pounding against her chest in anticipation. Naruto tightened his fists and Sasuke slid out a kunai, eyes never leaving Zabuza's form.

"Kakashi of the Sharingan," he shot back. "I can see why the Demon Brothers were no match for you, but no matter—I'm taking the bridge builder."

Kakashi lifted his headband, Obito's eye spinning in response. "Team Seven, surround and protect Tazuna-san. Do not interfere in the fight."

"I'm honored to meet the famous Sharingan of yours," he said unflinchingly, "but in the end, that old man is mine."

"You'll have to fight me first," Kakashi insisted, voice low and dangerous.

The fight started with a spike of chakra, and a thick mist settled from the lake. Sakura couldn't see more than her own feet. Killing intent filled the air and she felt Naruto and Sasuke stiffen next to her, holding their breaths. Raising her hands, she smacked the two of them in the back, sending out a wave of calming chakra.

"Relax," she murmured. "Kaka-sensei doesn't let his comrades die, remember?"

The tension seemed to ease after that and both boys gave her a grateful nod.

"Sakura-chan is right," Kakashi said. "The only death today will be yours, Zabuza."

There was a flash of chakra and Sakura felt his presence moving behind her. Pivoting on her heel she reached out with a kunai, slicing through Zabuza's chest as he appeared between their formation. Tazuna cried in alarm as the clone burst into water, drenching their clothes.

"Move!" she yelled, pushing Tazuna as Kakashi came forth, bringing the fight too close to their client.

Naruto and Sasuke jumped to their feet as she pulled the old bridge builder away, and there was a tremor of chakra as both Jōnin clashed in battle. They exchanged a brief taijutsu spar before Kakashi was kicked away, crashing into the water.

And history repeated itself.

"Sensei!" Naruto shouted.

The lake burst around him to form a prison, and Zabuza grinned wickedly under his bandages, his right arm locking Kakashi inside. Another water clone slithered from the lake, solidifying.

"Run you three!" Kakashi ordered. "Take Tazuna-san and leave! His clone can't go far from the real body!"

Sakura took one glance at Naruto and Sasuke, realizing that they weren't planning on listening. The three had made a pact long ago to never run from a fight, and this was no exception.

"You're all just a bunch of brats acting like shinobi," his clone spat, eyes gleaming dangerously. "A real shinobi is someone who has survived numerous brushes with death. When you make it into my handbook as those who killed, then I'll consider you to be worth something."

Sakura moved. "Naruto, Sasuke, protect Tazuna-san!"

He disappeared.

His foot came flying out and she shunshined behind, lashing out with a chakra-laced fist. Zabuza's water clones were only ten percent of his real strength—even Naruto and Sasuke could outspeed him. His hand came out to block her, and Sakura met his blow straight on.

The clone burst into water as her chakra exploded outwards, and she turned to glare at the real Zabuza who was holding Kakashi hostage, jabbing a finger in his direction.

"I aggressively disagree, Zabuza," she snarled. Jiraiya's words rang in her mind. "A shinobi is one who _endures_. It doesn't matter how many techniques or kills you have under your belt, if you have the guts to get up every morning and face the challenges— _that's_ what makes a shinobi!"

"Yeah!" Naruto yelled from behind. "Forget your stupid handbook you eyebrow-less freak! You're going down!"

Sasuke growled in agreement.

Kakashi looked torn between admiration and exasperation.

"You've got quite the arrogance," Zabuza snarled. "But will your luck hold?"

Killing intent filled the air again.

"Get out of here!" Kakashi yelled again, realizing the gravity of the situation. "This fight was over the moment I was caught! Your mission is to protect Tazuna-san!"

Sakura gave him a smile. "Forgive my disobedience sensei, but I don't leave my comrades behind. After all, I was taught by the best."

"We'll see about that, little girl," Zabuza snapped.

Five more water clones burst from the lake and headed towards their way.

She turned to look at the boys, unwavering trust linking between them. "Naruto, Sasuke, tag-team and evaporate those clones!"

"You got it, Sakura-chan! _Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!_ "

Eight Narutos appeared in front of Tazuna and Sasuke ran through the hand seals for a powerful katon jutsu.

Taking her one chance, Sakura skidded past the clones as they were occupied and began running on top of the lake, eyes set on Kakashi's prison. All she had to do was force Zabuza to move and he would be free.

She guided a condensed amount of chakra down both arms, forming chakra scalpels that lengthened her shorter reach. Another clone burst from the lake's surface but she blew it away with a swing of her hand. Sakura charged to bisect him at the waist, and Zabuza jumped into the air, hand still inside the water prison.

She couldn't outspeed the real one with her weight seal activated, so a sacrifice it was. His foot came out at blinding speed and Sakura raised her hand, walking right into the attack.

Her blade severed the muscles and bones in his right forearm, just as his foot settled on her stomach, sending her flying back across the lake.

But the deed had been done.

Zabuza pulled out his mangled arm, and Kakashi broke free like a vindictive god, eyes blazing in anger.

She crashed into the water in a mess of limbs, not even bothering to stop her landing with chakra. Sinking into the water, she took a moment to survey her injury while being fully submerged. The kick had landed right under her rib cage, so there were no broken bones, but there was going to be one hell of a bruise if she didn't fix it now.

Sending healing chakra to her stomach, she popped her head over the surface of the lake; catching sight of Naruto and Sasuke evaporate the last water clone. Kakashi and Zabuza were in the midst of an intense ninjutsu battle, causing the entire lake to rise with their techniques. Zabuza's water dragon suddenly failed, and Sakura noticed with satisfaction that he couldn't use his damaged arm for proper hand seals.

Kakashi's dragon towered over them and sent the entire lake in motion, Sakura felt herself getting dragged along even from far away. Zabuza crashed into a tree, the bandages around his mouth staining red. Right before Kakashi was about to slit his throat, a familiar chakra signature came into range.

Senbon came flying through the air and pierced Zabuza through the neck. Haku appeared on the tree, completely hidden by the Hunter-nin mask.

After Kakashi checked for a pulse and gave a few words of exchange, Haku shouldered Zabuza's body and flickered away.

Sakura sighed. Part one, done.

A large hand grabbed the back of her shirt and hoisted her out of the lake. She craned her neck to see Kakashi dragging her out, eye crinkling in a smile.

"Nice work, Sakura," he chirped. "How's the stomach?"

"Healing," she smiled. "How's the ego?"

"Healing," he parroted, a chuckle escaping his lips. "But I'm _very_ proud of you three, well done."

The two walked over to the edge of the lake where Naruto and Sasuke were arguing about who took out more clones. They were all drenched from head to toe from Kakashi's attack, and Naurto whipped his head around at their approach.

"Sakura-chan! Did you see? Did you? Teme and I totally wiped the floor with those stupid eyebrow-less clones!"

"A little," she ruffled his head. "You _were_ awesome, Naruto."

He preened under the attention and Sasuke gave a small scoff, but the smirk on his face gave his smugness away.

"You guys are pretty amazing!" Tazuna laughed, adjusting his hat. "All right, let's all head back to my house and relax for a while! I'll have my daughter bring out the best dinner in thanks!"

Naruto cheered and followed after him, Sasuke a step behind. Sakura looked over her shoulder just as Kakashi lost his balance and promptly fell over.

"Sensei!" she grabbed his torso, keeping him up righted. "Activate the bracelet!"

Sasuke came around and grabbed his shoulders, turning him. "He's completely out, Sakura."

She nearly screamed in frustration but settled for a sigh instead. Of course he'd forget and pass out on her.

Knowing he would wake soon, she augmented her muscles with chakra and easily lifted Kakashi into her arms, his long legs barely dragging against the ground. Sasuke gave an amused smirk at her display of monstrous strength, and they followed after Tazuna and Naruto.

"The moment Kaka-sensei wakes up, I'll smack him in the head for forgetting about my present."

"Heh. And no one will stop you."

.

* * *

.

The cool wind of the night brushed against her skin as Sakura sat calmly near the outskirts of the country.

A clone was with her team at Tazuna's house, and with the way everyone taking the night to rest, the chance of it accidently dispersing was little to none. Her limiter seals were finally disabled, allowing her to move at full potential.

She stretched her back, feeling the familiar snugness of the Anbu uniform she wore, and the stiffness of her hair from the powder dye. It had been an entire year since she had to use it.

A soft poof of smoke came from her right, and Sei appeared on the rail, nearly blending in with the darkness.

"Mika has their location secured and is waiting near the base," he revealed. "We'll be moving about sixty miles east."

She held out her hand for the lizard to perch on. "Let's go."

She placed a Hiraishin seal under the rail for her return, and vanished from the dock.

The soil sunk slightly as she landed in the middle of a thick forest, and she immediately cloaked her presence, suppressing her heartbeat.

Mika was waiting on the trunk of a large tree, and made an impressive leap to land on her shoulder.

"Sakura-chan," he greeted. "Nice to see you still alive."

She grinned. "What's the update, Mika?"

"The base is built into four main quadrants," he began, "Gatō's office is in the furthest square to the left. His shipping items are in the area to the right. Zabuza and Haku are recovering in a small room to the bottom right quadrant. The left is filled with living arrangements for Gatō's men."

"The perimeter?"

"There are two main entrances and exits. A pair of patrols will pass by every half hour. The base itself is about half a kilometer in diameter."

"Perfect," she muttered, leaping onto a tree.

She placed her palm over the bark and a glowing seal mark bloomed under her hand. Leaping away, she traveled north, finding another suitable area before imprinting another tree.

"Fifty feet left, Sakura-chan," Sei muttered. "You're getting too close to the patrol."

Trusting their instructions, she traveled a little longer before stopping to make another mark. Pivoting on her heel, she made her last stop at a fairly large tree, placing down her fourth seal.

"No one leaves or enters without my permission," she murmured, flipping through a set of hand seals.

Four pillars of light peeked into the sky as a white chakra barrier ripped through the forest, blocking off all areas of escape and sealing Gatō's base inside. After a second, the light died down and the rectangular barrier blended into the surroundings. If anyone tried to leave, they would be electrocuted on the spot—a lovely suggestion from Kakashi when she had first made the seal.

"All set," she turned to her two summons. "Thank you, both. I'll treat you to some dango when I get back, deal?"

"Deal," Sei grinned before disappearing in a cloud of smoke. Mika followed after.

Steadying her breath, Sakura pulled a kunai from her pouch and slipped through the first main entrance. Two thugs were already in the hall, and before they could even get out a scream, she cut through their throats.

Running down the corridor as their bodies fell behind her, she focused on the map in her mind, keeping note of every door she passed. After four left turns, she burst through a door that Mika had noted, satisfied to find dozens of Gatō's men inside.

Shouts rang through the room as they saw her appearance, the previous quiet erupting into uproar. With no hesitation in mind, Sakura made her way through every man that dared to cross her path, slashing and punching until there were none left standing.

Gatō's men were mostly hired thugs and mercenaries; none of them had even the slightest threat when compared to Zabuza nor Haku, it almost made Sakura laugh. When the room was cleared out, she torched the entire place with a katon jutsu, blowing out a stream of oil to add to the destruction.

Men were now filling the halls in an attempt to find the intruder, shouting and screaming orders at each other. She slashed through them easily, making her way to the top right area of the base—another quadrant to burn down.

She bust through the locked doors with a chakra enhanced punch, nearly squinting with the amount of light in the room. Towers upon towers of shipping goods were stacked on top of each other in endless rows, and it almost made Sakura hesitate to burn it down.

Deciding to do some good in her life, Sakura released twenty shadow clones into the room, ordering them to set an empty storage seal over every single tower. When they were all in place, Sakura flipped through a few hand seals, preparing for a simultaneous mass sealing.

There was an explosion of white smoke as all the shipping goods were sealed away, disappearing into their designated storage scrolls. One by one, each clone came before her, and Sakura sealed those scrolls into one large seal. When nearly the entire room was emptied, she dispersed all her clones, slinging the large scroll across her back.

Pulling out her specialized explosion tags, she wrapped them around a kunai and threw them to different parts of the room. Within moments the entire place lit up in flames, rattling the base's foundation with an earth-shaking tremor. With a pivot of her heel, she left the room.

More of Gatō's thugs came and went, and Sakura didn't know how many men she had cut down so far. It all seemed to blend in after a while. With three different turns, she made her way into an elaborate hallway with large double doors at the end.

 _Gatō._

Charging down the corridor she kicked down the door, immediately engaging the two samurai that had leaped to counter her attacks. They were better than the thugs but nothing compared to Zabuza and Haku. They were disposed of quickly.

To her surprise, Gatō was pressing himself up against the wall, face contorted in a mixture of anger and fear. She glanced around the elaborate office and noticed that everything was upturned as if hastily moved. So he was trying to take all his rich possessions with him, and missed his chance to leave.

Not that he could have escaped in the first place, of course.

"W-Who the hell are you, Anbu! Who gave you rights to come into _my_ shipping company!" he pointed a stubby finger at her. "I'll ruin your village next if you don't let me go!"

Yes. She would greatly enjoy removing this man from the face of the earth.

A chakra scalpel formed in her hand and before he could even see her move, she had cut through his arms and legs, separating the muscles and bones.

Gatō cried in anguish, trying to find an outer injury. Sakura grabbed him by the collar and began dragging him out of the room and into the hall. He was quite short for a man—shorter than her twelve-year-old self. His legs refused to support any form of escape and his arms wouldn't rise past his elbows.

"Help me, you cretins!" Gatō shouted as his thugs bounded into the halls.

Even with the extra weight, Sakura easily cut through them, moving to where Zabuza and Haku were recovering. She knew they would have felt the chakra barrier go up, and hope that they chose to stay in light of Zabuza's injuries.

"Let go of me!" the man continued to squirm when none of his men wanted to help. "I-I'll give you anything! Money! Land! Name your price and you can have it!"

"Shut up or I'll cut your throat," she threatened. It was a fat lie at the moment since she needed him to confess his dirty plan to backstab Zabuza and Haku.

Feeling for two strong chakra signatures, she began to pick up her speed, not caring that she was giving Gatō an incredible case friction burns. Finding the correct door, she punched through it with chakra, and a trap of senbon came flying at her. She dodged easily, raising the man in her hands as a shield.

"Stop! Stop! Don't attack me you fools! Kill _him_!" he screamed, thrashing. "Do your job right for once and kill this intruder, now!"

Zabuza was lying on a makeshift bed, and Haku was in front of him in a protective posture, devoid of his mask. Neither shinobi moved.

"Now, now, Gatō, I've brought you here for a very important reason," she announced, forcing his knees to meet the ground. "A little birdie told me that you were going to betray your two shinobi at any given moment, killing them without any pay."

His eyes widened. "T-That's not true! I-I swear, I was going to pay you both! I'll pay you now, just—"

She rammed a kunai into his back, right where his left kidney was.

"Lying isn't a good habit. What were you saying? Do you need more incentives?"

"You _shinobi!"_ he hissed, eyes clouded in pain. "I'll—I'll kill you! I'll kill you all! Who cares if you don't get paid? You're all a bunch of peasants who think you're so great in this world!"

Haku gave a quiet gasp and Zabuza gave Gatō a look of death. Mission complete.

Sliding her kunai under his neck, she gave a precise cut through his jugular, ridding the man of life. His body fell to the floor with a thud, and Sakura glanced up to see Haku wide eyed, his feminine face twisted into one of confusion.

"I'm not here to harm you," she said at last, after the silence began to stretch too great. "I'm here to pass along information."

"That uniform… you're Konoha Anbu, aren't you?" Zabuza growled, anger tinting his eyes.

"Yes and no," she answered honestly. "I don't operate under the Hokage, but my loyalty is to Konoha. So along those lines, I would like to pass on some advice about your Mizukage that you attempted to assassinate."

They both stilled, clearly not having expected the words. "What would you know?"

"Your Kage is not your own," she said seriously. "He is being controlled by an outside force by the name of Akatsuki. They are currently in the process of collecting tailed beasts for world domination."

"W-what?" Haku whispered out, glancing at Zabuza, who looked no less surprised.

"I know you've been collecting money to overthrow Yagura so I'll tell you this," she revealed, lifting up a finger. "In Kiri, there is a resistance being led by Mei Terumī. She is a highly capable shinobi who will undoubtedly be the next Mizukage. Find her, and join her ranks. She will help you achieve what you desire."

"And how could we trust you?" Zabuza snarled. "There's no way for you to know this."

"You can't," she said simply. "And there's nothing I can do to ask for trust other than to spare your lives tonight."

Zabuza hissed, obviously detesting the fact that he was weakened at the moment. "Do not think I can't kill you, Anbu."

Sakura was behind him in a flicker, kunai placed against his bandaged throat. Haku spun around in shock, eyes wide with fear for his companion.

"Please—"

"Haku, _don't_ ," the missing-nin commanded, barely breathing as he eyed her kunai.

"Do not assume I can't kill _you_ , Momochi Zabuza," she murmured, spiking her killing intent. "You are one piece within the hundreds of players I must keep track of on the board. If I have to dispose of you, then I will."

Tension rose in the room, and Sakura could see the veins in his temple bulge from strain. In a quick motion, she retracted the kunai and flashed to the other end of the room. Haku visibly sagged in relief.

"If what you said is true, why are you telling us this?" Zabuza asked at last, eyes narrowing in wariness.

She relaxed her stance. "I want to offer a treaty between us."

Haku blinked in surprise and Zabuza frowned. "You're talking to the wrong people, Anbu. What makes you think Kiri or this Mei Terumī will agree to this?"

"No," she shook her head once. "A treaty between the _three_ of us. Not Konoha and Kiri."

Haku looked as if he wanted to speak, but Zabuza cut in. "What do you want?"

"I'm on a mission to take down Akatsuki," she said clearly. "When the time comes, I will call for aid from all the Elemental Nations. I don't care who you tell or bring, all I ask is that you help me when I call you."

A beat of silence met her bold declaration, and Sakura could have sworn a malicious grin spread under his bandages.

"All the elemental nations?" he repeated. "An impossible notion. Do you really believe we can all stand against one cause?"

It's been done before and Sakura was damn sure it would happen again— _will_ happen again.

"It's only a dream to those too afraid to reach for it," she said daringly. "Will you give me your word?"

"That's all you ask?" Zabuza asked incredulously.

She nodded. "I believe in the good of Shinobi. No matter where we come from, we all uphold the same standard of honor and respect for our comrades. Will you agree?"

"I agree," Haku spoke loudly for the first time in their conversation, and both she and Zabuza turned to look at the young boy.

He was watching her with determination, eyes ignited with something she hadn't seen before in his gaze.

"Haku…"

"I want to believe you, Anbu-san," he said gently. "If your words are truth and I can find home again in Kiri, then I will rise at your call."

Sakura nodded in thanks, looking back to Zabuza.

" _Che_ ," he growled, giving a resigned sigh. "If your message holds true for your side of this treaty, then we will hold up ours."

She smiled behind the mask. "Thank you. My call won't come for a few years, so take care of yourselves until then."

"How will we know it's you?" Haku asked.

"It'll be unmistakable. You will know," she assured. With a swift movement, she lowered the large storage scroll on her back, placing it on the floor between them. "This is all of Gatō's stolen shipping goods. Take it to Mei Terumī-san. I'm sure it will be useful for the resistance."

Haku gave a slow nod, eyes never leaving her form. Turning to leave the room, Sakura paused momentarily, looking back over her shoulder. "But before I leave, Zabuza, I must say that your companion cares for you a great deal. It's probably time you start treating him with the same respect."

Haku's face blossomed red with shock and embarrassment, but before Sakura could see more, she pivoted on her heel and left the room.

She bounded out of the murky base and into the forest, dissipating the barrier with a hand seal. With all things considered tonight, she could count the mission a resounding success.

After giving one last curious glance over her shoulder, she disappeared from the forest.

.

* * *

.

For all the years he had been a shinobi, Kakashi learned to trust his instincts.

And he was right.

When a week went by, Zabuza and his partner made their appearance once more, covered by the thick mist.

The bridge workers had all been moved to the safety of the city, leaving his team and Tazuna alone on the bridge.

"So I was correct," he said out loud, analyzing the fake hunter-nin. "He's one of yours."

Zabuza grabbed the sword from his back, and Kakashi tensed, ready to move, but he simply spun it and sunk it into the bridge's frame.

"Haku's been with me from the start," Zabuza said, and something in his tone threw Kakashi off. Where was all the killing intent? "And it looks like your brats have gotten better too, I can see it."

He pushed up his headband, Sharingan spinning. "Let's conclude this now, Zabuza. I don't let the same enemy get away twice."

"No," he crossed his arms, "we're not here to fight you."

Kakashi froze, surprise and confusion running through his head. Before he could ask, the swordsman continued.

"Gatō and his men are dead—" Tazuna gasped from behind "—and we are no longer bound to that low life for payment. Our job here is done."

"Why would you kill him?" Kakashi questioned.

Zabuza gave a feral smirk as if he knew something that Kakashi didn't. "Neither Haku nor I touched that man. It was an Anbu—one of yours if I may add."

He could sense the confusion on his team's face, and before anything else could be said, Kakashi held out a hand. "Team Seven, stay here."

In a flicker, he vanished from the spot and landed a few feet away from the two missing-nin, closing off the conversation to them.

"The mask design?" he asked, voice low.

"Devoid," Zabuza replied simply. "Completely white."

His body stilled again in recognition. Every Anbu member was told of the mysterious shinobi that killed Danzō. He was nicknamed the White Anbu for his mask and snowy chest plate. It was the only thing that separated him from the official group. Who he was and what he was planning—none of them knew.

Kakashi had to speak carefully now. "What did he do?"

"Slaughtered Gatō's men, burned down his shipping goods into cinders—then he slit the man's throat. The bastard was planning on betraying us in the end and the Anbu somehow knew that."

"Did you clash?"

"No. He relayed us information, one we will not be delving into as it is between us and our future Kage."

More confusion settled in his senses. None of this was making any sense.

"You both are missing-nin," he pointed out. "You don't have a Kage."

Zabuza gave another grin under the bandages. "We'll see about that. For now, we will take our leave, and mark my words, Kakashi—we'll finish our fight on equal ground another day."

With that, the two flickered away, leaving him alone at the edge of the bridge. The mist cleared away.

"Wait, where'd they go, sensei?" Naruto demanded. "I was so ready to take him on!"

"They're no longer after Tazuna-san since Gatō is dead," he revealed, walking back towards his team. "So they're not our enemies."

Sasuke frowned. "What was that about Konoha Anbu killing him? Is it true?"

"That's confidential information, team," he said seriously, looking at each of them in the eye. "What you heard today does not leave your mouths, understand?"

Surprised at the sudden tone, all three nodded.

"Good," he turned to Tazuna. "Well, it looks like everything wrapped up rather nicely, didn't it, Tazuna-san? Our team will stay with you until the bridge is complete."

"Yes, this is wonderful news!" the elder man smiled widely. "Thank you for all you've done, sensei."

"Aah."

Damn. This was going to be one headache of a mission report to the Hokage.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Yes, I know it's been forever, and yes, I'm totally alive, and yes this is a new chapter. I've been on and off about writing little snippets of this fic, I'm surprised it's been so long since I've updated. And yes, I still don't have an exact idea of where I'm going with this story, but so far, I'm enjoying it a lot and I hope you guys are too.

I won't drag this author's note too much, but I will say that updates might still take a while. I'm writing about 15k words for every chapter (which is about 50 pages in google docs), so it's _a lot_ to write. I'm really happy with everyone sticking with me on this though. So anyway, happy reading!

El

* * *

Chapter 4

.

Her world was silently still.

Sakura could feel the natural energy around her with clarity, nudging it to merge with her own chakra. Everything felt perfectly aligned, as if the universe was falling into even steps. Then the pain came.

She screamed, losing her concentration as her entire body felt like it was being burned from the inside out. Her body convulsed painfully, and she clutched the rock under her for support, trying not to lose consciousness. There was a distinct _bang_ as all the chakra she gathered in her body dissipated, flying back into the earth once more.

"Sakura!" Kanae's deep voice jolted her eyes to open. "Look at me."

She pulled her chin up slowly, gasping and unable to do more than whimper, but she met his eyes squarely.

"I _can't_ do this," she groaned, trying to blink away the pain in her head. The roaring sound of the waterfall she sat under drowned out her own voice, but she knew he could hear her. "How many times has it been now?"

Kanae frowned. "Not enough. You had it perfectly—I saw the markings appear around your eyes."

"I'm too _weak,_ " she cried bitterly, unable to stop herself from shaking. How many times has her body rejected it? How many sessions had she achieved the perfect balance but was unable to handle the combination? "My body's not strong enough to handle Sage Mode. I— I'm not like Naruto! He took a _week_ to master it, and it's been _months_! This is my limit. I just… can't…"

She buried her face in the crook of her elbow, unable to look at Kanae in the eyes. Shame and disappointment spread through her chest like a dark reminder of her constant failures. How could she ever think of saving the world when she couldn't even handle bearing the weight of Sage Mode?

A large hand grabbed a fistful of her shirt, lifting her into the air with ease. Sakura yelped in alarm, turning to see the man responsible.

"Kakashi," she said tiredly, entirely having forgotten that he was watching over her. The only one she had left in this world.

"Sakura, stop," he said firmly, eyes darkening as he stared at her. "You are not Naruto. No one else is Naruto but Naruto himself. Stop comparing yourself to what others have done in their lifetime— you'll never match up."

She flinched, feeling each word place a stake in her chest.

"Because the Sakura I know is better than that," he continued, not once breaking eye contact. "When something completely stumps her, she always finds a way around it— never giving in, never giving up."

She let her head drop. "This is a matter of genetics, Kakashi. How am I supposed to figure out a way to combat something that my body isn't capable of handling in the first place?"

His lips twitched into a small grin, using his other hand to force her chin back up. "I don't know. I'm not you, after all. But the Haruno Sakura I'm familiar with is pretty intelligent, so I'm sure she'll figure out a way."

He lowered her back onto the slab of rock, and Sakura gave a quite exhale, feeling the rough texture under her palms. After a moment of long silence, she slowly raised her head, looking straight at Kanae.

"Right now, the only thing that's stopping me from attaining Sage Mode is my own body, correct?"

He gave a quick nod, forked tongue sliding between his teeth. "You were able to perfectly balance senjutsu chakra after your third day of practice. So yes, the only thing stopping you is your lack of extreme chakra levels."

She scrunched her face in thought, looking at her own hands in confirmation. After another minute, she glanced at the waterfall behind her, watching every drop that fell from heaven's height.

"I need some time to study," she said at last, determination lacing her voice. "I need a scroll and some ink."

"Have a plan?" Kakashi raised an eyebrow.

She rose to her feet, meeting his gaze. "Not one you're going to like, unfortunately." She leaped away from the waterfall, coating her bare feet with chakra as to not slip on the rocks. "I need you to help me sort through every one of Orochimaru's studies with me— specifically the ones pertaining to his cursed seals!"

Kakashi sighed from behind her. "Not Orochimaru again…"

.

* * *

.

Their meeting wasn't planned.

She had a span two months away from Konoha as she accompanied her parents on a business trip to Kumo. Sakura always cursed her past self on these trips, wondering why she never bothered to follow her parents on their journey around the world— oh right, she was too busy trying to look good for Sasuke back in those days.

Grumbling away those thoughts, Sakura focused on the landscape before her, dispelling the genjutsu that surrounded the immediate area. She needed to focus now.

She had left behind a kage bunshin with her parents, and Sakura knew that with all the bland activity they did, there was no way it was going to get dispelled. She had an entire two months away from Konoha, and she was going to make good use of the time, eight years old or not.

So she decided to track down Orochimaru's hideouts. She had broken through each and every one in her past timeline, gathering his research and reading through his sick experiments with a hard pressed jaw.

While being in the Kumo area, Sakura knew it was the perfect chance to visit the Northern Hideout. It was one of Orochimaru's largest, and arguably, his most important. It was where all his crucial experimentation happened, and where he learned to develop the curse seals.

Jumping onto the rocky landscape, Sakura quickly made her way towards the lab, finding it settled nicely between two colossal rock structures. Exactly as she remembered it.

Readjusting her Anbu gear incase a fight happened, Sakura made her way towards the large entrance, climbing the front steps as if she was a welcomed guest. She remembered all his hideouts, and was confident that she wouldn't get lost.

As soon as she entered through the double doors, screaming filled her ears. She glanced at the entrance, deducing that there was some sort of silence seal around the walls that stopped noise from spilling outside.

Ignoring the screams for now, Sakura gave a wide pulse of her chakra, sensing for a particular signature she knew to be Orochimaru's or Kabuto's. Surprisingly, they were absent. She couldn't know with exact reason what they were up to, but there were plenty of other hideouts they could be at, and Sakura was perfectly content knowing that they wouldn't be bothering her.

She padded down the hall in sure steps, already having disabled all her limiter seals. If worst came to worst, she was positive she could hiraishin back to the room her parents were staying in Kumo.

The volume of screams suddenly pitched as she slipped into one of the central hallways, and broke down one of the doors with a solid kick. The smell of death and blood filled her nose as she stepped in, spotting each body that was strewn across the floor. Most of them were dead, rotting away on the concrete floor, muscles and bones beginning to show through. The ones that were alive were sitting up against the wall, trying in vain to shield their eyes from the light that passed through from the open doorway. The screams originated from two men who were writhing on the ground, the curse mark spreading around their body, but utterly incompatible with the seal. She knew they would die within a few days.

"K-Konoha Anbu…"

She turned towards the hoarse voice, glancing down at the man closest to her. He looked to be about Kakashi's age, blonde hair matted with blood and dirt from over the years. She didn't recognize him, but assumed he was one of the many shinobi Orochimaru had abducted when he first defected from Konoha.

"Is it true?" he continued breathlessly, eyes wide and glassy. "Did Hokage-sama send you?"

Technically, Sarutobi was on a man-hunt for her after she had killed Danzo, but she couldn't bear telling him otherwise.

"Can you walk?" she asked instead.

He gave the barest of nods.

"Take anyone else with you," she ordered. "I don't have rations, nor any other men to take you back. The journey home will be yours— a week's travel south."

He swallowed thickly, giving another nod. "And Orochimaru's wardens?"

She frowned. "I didn't meet anyone else here yet."

The man's eyes widened in clear horror, shrinking back. "There's three here. Two of them are combat type, and one's a sensor. All those who've tried leaving were brought back within the same day. It's impossible—"

Sakura turned around just as a chakra signature came barreling into her senses, and the door she had broken down was covered by a large figure of a man.

"It's him," the man squeaked, shuffling back in fear.

Sakura stood slowly, eyeing the shinobi in front of her. He was large, towering over her small height, with protruding muscles along his limbs, and long shaggy hair.

"Intruder," he spoke at last, beady eyes staring down at her.

Not bothering with the pleasantries, Sakura executed the fastest shunshin she could pull, flashing behind him with her hand raised, and jabbed him in the center of his back with high frequency chakra. The man didn't even have time to grunt as his body exploded in a mess of blood and organs, spilling over the floor, much like Danzo's had done.

One down.

She turned to face the konoha nin, noting that he was covered by the aftermath of her attack. He was still frozen, mouth agape and eyes wide.

She crouched down, staring through the slits of her Anbu mask. "Before you leave, is there anything you can tell me about the current state of this hideout and what Orochimaru's been up to?"

Her voice seemed to shock him back into reality as jolted back. "I-I don't know the details. All I can conclude is that he's been working on some cursed seal for the past few years. Hardly anyone survives the ordeal. Those two— " he pointed to the ones screaming on the floor, "just came back yesterday night with those marks."

"I see," she murmured, getting to her feet. "I'll find the other two wardens. Get out of here as soon as you can."

"I— thank you!"

Sakura didn't look back as she pivoted on her heel, dashing down the hallway. She repeated her steps through each door she knocked down, finding the situation in every room get worse and worse as she got deeper into the building.

The other two wardens were easy to find and take down. The sensor had barely any combat skills to defend himself with, and the third nin was definitely a long range type— one she properly disposed of with a swift tap to the chest. While they were formidable as a team, Sakura suspected that they were placed by Orochimaru on the basis of stopping the prisoners from leaving— weakened and chakra drained escapees, not fighting outside intruders like Sakura.

As she neared one of the larger hallways, she spotted an unnaturally wide door, obviously much more dense and protected with chakra coated chains blocking the entrance. Sakura neared the door, sensing two chakra signatures inside— one of which she recognized.

Jugo.

She glanced at the door again, realizing that it had been opened. The bolts were undone, and the chain was halfway draped across the metal. Steeling herself for the encounter, Sakura pushed the door open slightly, letting light fill the room.

Faster than the normal flight of kunai, four white spears of bone shot directly towards her, stabbing into the back wall as Sakura dodged. There was a roar as a large, disfigured fist smashed next to her head, and she briefly met the owners eyes. They were tinted yellow, but the lack of bloodlust made her understand that the transformation was taken on his own will.

Sliding under another barrage of sharp projectiles, Sakura gathered chakra to her fingertips, slamming her hand into Jugo's diaphragm, right where the concentration of his chakra network lay. He grunted, his bodily transformations suddenly disappearing as he collapsed to the ground.

"Jugo!"

Sakura turned to the origin of the voice, finally getting a chance to analyze the second occupant. He was still a child by proportions, looking around Jugo's age, with snowy white hair parted neatly in a zigzag formation. Two red dots adorned his skin right above his eyebrows, and red marks decorated the area around his eyes. Although she had never met him in her past timeline, he was one she read about in many of Orochimaru's studies.

Kaguya Kimimaro.

The boy who was originally supposed to take Sasuke's place a vessel had it not been for his strange illness. The one who, despite being on the brink of death, fought off two jinchuriki and a taijutsu expert— and nearly won. The one who had a religious dedication to Orochimaru and had a kekkei genkai of bone that baffled all medics around the nation.

She watched him rush to Jugo's side, surprise written over his face as the orange-haired boy blinked sleepily, all traces of his transformation gone.

"Mmfh," Jugo grunted. "Wha… what happened."

Sakura made one step towards the two, and Kimimaro stiffened, crouching protectively over his closest friend.

"I'm sorry," she raised her hands in a universal sign of peace. "I didn't mean to startle you two."

"Who are you?" Kimimaro demanded, voice low. "You're not one of Orochimaru's shinobi."

"I'm not," she replied honestly. "I just came to visit."

Before Kimimaro could respond to her snarky words, Jugo came around.

"What did you do to me?" he asked, craning his neck so he could try and see through her mask. "My body…"

Sakura crouched as well, trying to seem as least intimidating as possible. "I knew someone a lot like you, Jugo. He had crazy fits of rage and would be unable to control himself because of his clan's power."

"How do you know me?" he whispered out, eyes wide with disbelief.

 _Because you were the one who accompanied Kakashi and I to every one of Orochimaru's hideouts. You were caring and soft-hearted, willing to help and understood that Sasuke was beyond our power._

"Like I said, I've seen someone like you before," she said vaguely. "And it's a seal that I developed for him that temporarily disrupts the flow of natural energy within the body, effectively halting his transformations and fits."

Jugo was, after all, much easier to work with when he wasn't trying to kill her and Kakashi at random intervals.

The boy bolted on his knees quickly, startling Kimimaro who was still glancing between them. "Can this be permanent? Please, I-I don't want to kill anyone!"

"But Jugo…" Kimimaro looked scandalized. "Orochimaru will cure you."

He shook his head, eyes downcast. "No… It's already been three years since I came here. Although this cage is nice, I don't think Orochimaru is going to cure me. He never said he _could_."

Sakura stilled at the revelation. Jugo had told her he seeked out Orochimaru on his own when he was young, but just not _how_ young _._ The boy in front of her was only eleven according to her math, and he had already been in isolation for so long. She hadn't even realized he was here when she first walked in.

"Yes," she answered at last. "I can make it permanent. I can even reorder the seal so that you can willingly use your special power when needed. It'll only stop the random rages."

Jugo looked at her as if she held all the answers in the world, and for a moment, maybe she seemed that way.

"You would do that?" he asked, hope lacing his expression.

She nodded. "Yes. For you, I will."

Kimimaro suddenly bolted back to life, giving her a hard stare. If he was more expressive, she would have thought he was glaring at her. "Jugo, no. She's not one of Orochimaru's shinobi. He'll be furious."

Getting into a sitting position, Jugo looked uncomfortably at the one person that may have been his closest friend and ally. "Kimimaro, do you remember that one night we talked about our purpose in this world?"

Sakura watched from the side as the white-haired boy looked suddenly grave. "Yes."

"Your purpose was to serve Orochimaru," Jugo began. "To repay his kindness— " Sakura inwardly balked at the description, never understanding how the words 'Orochimaru' and 'kindness' could be used in the same sentence, "— and to be of use to him. Do you remember mine?"

Kimimaro blinked. "To contain your power."

"I first came here believing that maybe Orochimaru could do it," Jugo muttered. "But now… but now there's someone who can. Who really said yes to my purpose."

"It's a lie," Kimimaro said, glancing at her. For someone who grew up alone, his eyes were swimming with concealed emotion.

Jugo turned to look at her as well. "Do I… well, what do I have to give in return?"

"Nothing," she shrugged. It was nothing compared to how much she owed him. "I just want you to live your life happily and do the things you want, without having to worry about accidentally killing anyone. It's what my friend said too."

Jugo looked overwhelmed. "I— "

Kimimaro suddenly lurched forward, caught in an intense coughing fit as he clutched his chest. Blood spilt down his chin and both Sakura and Jugo lost sight of their conversation.

"Kimimaro!"

Sakura bolted forward, not caring about whether or not the boy trusted her. She had read dozens of folders just on his illness from Kabuto, and knew the severity of it.

Glowing green hands pressed against his chest as Sakura did her best to see what was happening. She pulled apart his shirt, momentarily pausing when she noticed his clean skin. He wasn't marked with the curse seal yet. She knew from her readings that he was the only one to receive the Cursed Seal of Earth, and deduced that it was still being perfected by Orochimaru— or the boy was too young. Shaking away those thoughts, she pressed forward. "Jugo, help me hold him down."

He seemed to hesitate before pulling Kimimaro's body straight, eyes never leaving her hands. "Are you a medic?"

"I am," she replied absentmindedly, her focus entirely on Kimimaro. It was just as Kabuto observed. A strange sort of virus was corroding his body from the inside. The majority of it came from his lungs, but Sakura could see the deterioration happening through his limbs and muscles. By all accounts, the boy should have been dead before he turned fifteen.

"Kabuto is usually here to help but…" Jugo trailed off, looking nervous for his friend.

Sending a surge of chakra into his chest, Sakura forced the remaining blood to be expelled out his throat. She tilted his head to the side, allowing the dark fluid to spill past his lips and onto the floor. He was mumbling something, but the pain must have been so intense, his eyes grew glassy and unseeing.

Sakura sent a sharp stab of chakra to Kimimaro's temple, forcing him to lose consciousness. "I can help him, but not here."

"You want to leave?"

Throwing Kimimaro over her small shoulder, she looked back. "I'm _going_ to leave. Do you want him to live?"

Jugo looked torn. "He would be angry if we took him away. Orochimaru would be angry with him."

"I want you to think about yourself," Sakura said impatiently. "You and Kimimaro. Not Orochimaru. Do you want him to _live_?"

Sakura was pushing him, and she knew it. Even if she didn't give him immediate medical treatment, she knew Kimimaro would somehow make it through for another few years.

"Yes, I do," Jugo said softly.

"Then follow me."

Turning on her heel, Sakura bolted out of the prison, holding back her speed in order for Jugo to keep up. They ran through the elaborate hallways, and she saw Jugo give a quick and wary glance at the bloodstained walls of each warden's death.

Within moments, the two left the doors of Orochimaru's Northern hideout, and Sakura threw a glance over her shoulder. "There's a small civilian island on the edge of Kumo. I can find a room for us to temporarily stay at but it's going to take a few hours of travel to get there. Can you keep up?"

Jugo gave a firm nod, and Sakura readjusted her grip on Kimimaro before leaping onto the water. "Let's go."

…

Sakura slumped back in exhaustion as she let her medical chakra fizz out from her hands. She sat in one of the old wooden chairs, trying to comprehend what she had just discovered.

Kimimaro's body was nothing like she had ever seen before.

Everything about shinobi that made them _human,_ simply didn't apply to Kimimaro. His kekkei genkai had altered him on a cellular level. She couldn't even apply logical medical conclusions on his illness.

"How is he?" Jugo sat worriedly on the other side of the bed, mouth pressed in thin line.

"He'll be okay," Sakura replied honestly. She had removed parts of the illness that she could, and worked to heal up the areas that had deteriorated over time. It was a temporary fix, but one that would at least make him feel better. For now.

Kimimaro's face gave a small frown as he slowly returned to consciousness, green eyes blinking sluggishly. He gave a soft grunt, pausing dramatically in the middle of a large inhale.

"Kimimaro," Jugo waved a hand across his eyes. "Can you see me?"

"Where… is it?" he asked, bringing a hand slowly over his chest. "Why…"

Jugo looked slightly hesitant before responding. "We're in Aoshingou. It's the civilian island close to the Kumo border. The shinobi helped heal you."

His eyes flickered to Sakura for the briefest second, confusion written in them. "Why would you help me…"

She shrugged, trying to fight off her sudden desire to cry. This poor boy who had been locked up all his life, only released to kill others— who had probably never received an ounce of kindness from anyone. No wonder he latched onto Orochimaru like he did. "I'm a medic-nin. I swore an oath to heal anyone who needs it, no matter who they are."

"I cannot be healed," he replied tonelessly. "Kabuto said it is incurable."

And Kabuto was very right to say that. Kimimaro's body was so incredibly different, the way it reacted to her healing was different, and she would need months and months and most likely years of studying to truly help the boy.

"I can't make promises to cure you, but I can make a promise to try," she said simply. "How are you breathing now?"

Kimimaro gave a hesitant, but deep breath, surprise and awe flashing through his eyes. "It feels… better."

"This is the first time I'm seeing an illness like yours," Sakura said. _And a kekkei genkai like yours._ "I did what I can for now, but getting you a cure is going to take some more time."

"...Really?" Jugo perked. "You would really try?"

She rolled her tongue against the inside of her cheeks as a sudden idea came into mind, and she stared at him hard. "I would like the two of you to promise me something in return though."

Jugo instantly deflated, eyes wide with anticipation. "I… we don't have much to give you."

She leaned forward, dropping her elbows onto the edge of the bed. "How long have you two been with Orochimaru?"

"It's been a little over three years," he said cautiously. "For both of us."

"Then for the next three years, I would like the two of you to live away from Orochimaru. That is my condition."

Kimimaro's eyes went wide with disbelief, for how could he ever forsake his master, but Jugo looked surprisingly contemplative.

"I will never leave Orochimaru's side," Kimimaro said instantly. "I will die for him if I must."

Already having expected such an answer, she turned to look at Jugo.

"I… " he hesitated, looking away.

"Kimimaro," she suddenly called, catching the boy's gaze. "You said your life's purpose was to serve Orochimaru, correct?"

He nodded firmly.

"How do you expect to serve him with an illness like yours?" she asked brutally. "Your condition will only get worse from here, and I suspect Orochimaru doesn't show favor to his sick-ridden shinobi. With every year that passes, you'll be unable to run missions, or even complete his biddings. You'll be constrained to bed, most like by Kabuto, and he'll be unable to help you at all. You'll have to live and die with the burden of knowing that you failed Orochimaru."

A dark shadow crossed his eyes, indicating that he too, had thought about his future. "Whatever life I have left then… I will use for him."

"Think about my offer. I'm fairly confident that I can cure you in three years time," she said slowly. Sakura was usually never one to lie to her patients, but this was a different circumstance entirely. "Instead of wasting away under Orochimaru for the next few years, wouldn't you rather try to heal yourself, then return to his service as a completely capable shinobi? He would even be able to use your body as a vessel then."

Her own words made Sakura sick, but that fact the they made Kimimaro slowly look understanding, made her feel even worse.

"Three years is all I ask," she finished. And hopefully, three years would be enough to change his mind.

"What will I do then?" Kimimaro muttered. "I am purposeless without Orochimaru."

Fighting the urge to smack the boy upside the head, she shook her head. "I would like the two of you to travel. Visit all around the Elemental Nations, take on odd jobs here and there to make money, eat food you've never seen before, meet people who look weird, learn some new skills, find a hobby, go flower picking— honestly, the world is at your hands… But I want you guys to _live._ And not in the survival sense, but in a human sense."

Silence met her declaration as they both stared at her, confusion written across their faces.

"Just… travel?" Jugo finally said. "That's it?"

"Anywhere in the world," she said, waving of her hand. "Anywhere— except with Orochimaru. Even if he approaches you, don't return to him, don't speak with him. Not for the next three years. And in return, I'll give you, Jugo, the permanent seal, and I'll heal you up properly, Kimimaro."

They were both pacifists by nature, and with a pang, she realized how similar the two were to Itachi— shinobi that excelled in their field but didn't actually enjoy the thrill, or the blood on their hands. Her offer seemed unreal.

"I want to go," Jugo said quietly, as if he made the biggest declaration in the world. "I… I've always wondered what it was like to live normally in a village with people."

Kimimaro gave no indication of an outburst at Jugo's words, but he didn't agree either. He turned his head to the side, eyes downcast. "I would like to think about it some more."

Immediately satisfied that he hadn't outright rejected her anymore, Sakura stood from her seat smiling behind her mask. "Very well."

…

One week.

It took an entire week for Kimimaro to give his answer, but even then, it was with great caution. Sakura stopped the urge to dance around in celebration, but instead, settled for a content sigh. He was leaving Orochimaru.

She had already prepared for the best possible scenario, and rummaged through her pack for what she needed.

"Here, take this. And keep it around your wrists."

With well honed reflexes, both Jugo and Kimimaro caught the thin strip of cloth she threw at them, looking at it with confusion.

"What is it?" Jugo inquired, staring at with narrowed eyes. There seemed to be nothing extraordinary about it at all.

"Think of it like a calling card," Sakura explained, already having made something similar for Gaara two years back. "I have a seal that's been imbedded in there that acts like a homing beacon. If you send chakra into it, it'll alert me and I'll be able to instantly appear before you."

Jugo's jaw dropped and Kimimaro didn't look like he believed her. "Anywhere? No matter where we are in the world?"

"Well, the greater the distance the more chakra it'll take," she said honestly, rubbing her neck. "But I've been doing this for a while now, so even if you're countries away, I'll be there within moments."

"When can we use this?" Kimimaro asked, eyes staring intently at the strip of cloth.

"When you need me," she said simply. "Jugo, the seal I gave you can still be tampered with if someone smart enough unbalances it with a different seal, or tries to disable it. If something goes wrong, you call me."

He nodded, hovering a hand over his diaphragm where she had placed the permanent seal.

"And Kimimaro, anytime your illness gets the best of you. I'll be checking in with you every other week, but incase something happens in between that time, make sure to let me know."

He gave a slow nod.

"Good. And if you two run into strong rogue shinobi, or god forbid, Orochimaru, _please_ alert me."

A small smile tugged at Jugo's lips as he glanced at Kimimaro. "I think we'll be okay on that part. Kimimaro and I are strong. We can take care of ourselves."

"That's what all little boys say," she muttered.

Jugo went slightly red, looking thoroughly offended. "We're not little! We're already eleven years old."

 _Yeah,_ she thought with amusement, _and I'm a twenty-nine year old woman trying to protect whatever's left of your innocence._

"And you're smaller than us," Jugo remarked with a hint of confidence.

"Don't think my size indicates my age," she remarked grumpily, repeating what she told Shisui a few months ago. "I assure you, I'm much older than I look."

There was a moment of silence as the atmosphere turned surprisingly light, and Sakura let a smile slip past her guard.

Maybe she could save a little bit of their innocence after all.

.

* * *

.

Kakashi could remember the first time he met Sakura with absolute clarity. It was his sixth consecutive year in Anbu, and he was taking missions back to back without rest, pushing his squad to their limits.

Just before his team was to depart to Suna, he had gone to say his farewells at the memorial when he spotted a familiar head of pink, kneeling before the stone and tracing her finger over the carved names.

Kakashi could recognize that hair anywhere. She was the girl who befriended Minato's son on the first day of the Academy last year. The two soon became inseparable, along with one of the Uchiha brats.

Haruno Sakura.

Sarutobi—as was the way of being a shinobi—had promptly been wary of the girl who so easily stole of the heart of the Kyuubi jinchuriki, and ordered him to execute a complete background check.

Her story was nothing special.

Her mother was a part time nurse at the Konoha hospital, and her father was a merchant from the traveling Haruno clan. According to Haruno Mebuki's long sections of absences in the hospital staff, the family would make business trips around the Elemental Nations quite often. A normal, and rather typical civilian family.

Personally, he had never spoken to the girl and decided to leave it that way. He would return to the Memorial once the mission was over.

As he turned to leave, Sakura gave a sudden flare of her chakra, snapping her head around towards his direction.

He wasn't masking his presence, but it was still beyond impressive considering the distance between them.

Feeling a sense of interest grip his chest, Kakashi approached, knowing the porcelain mask would keep his face hidden away.

Her jade eyes flickered to his mask, then to his silver hair before a large smile pulled at her lips.

"Hi!" she chirped, unnaturally happy against the somber backdrop of the Memorial.

After a beat of silence, he chose to reply, slightly curious about the girl who befriended Konoha's jinchuriki.

"Hey, kid."

She immediately made a face. "I'm not a kid! I'm six! Six!

She lifted up the correct number of chubby short fingers, indicating her age.

It was cute, he would admit. Nothing like he was when he was six— climbing the rank of Chunin as he stained his hands with the blood of his first kill.

"Yeah. That's a kid to me."

She pouted, crossing her arms. "You're a kid too."

"Says who?" He questioned, wondering how she even got to that conclusion.

"Says Sakura!" She jabbed a thumb at her chest. "You're a kid. Like me."

He crouched down, peering at her through the slits of his mask. "I'm a shinobi; I'm too old to be a kid. "

And too many lives were taken by his hands.

Her small palm smacked the left side of his Anbu chest plate, tapping the area with surprising strength.

"You're innocent too," she said strongly, eyes wide as she tried to look past his mask. "You're blameless. You're a Shinobi... but you're honorable. You're still a kid."

His body immediately tensed, her words hitting him like rocks against an unguarded wall. Obito's face flashed through his eyes. Rin, Minato, his father—how had she seen?

"Why?" He asked at last, unable to speak more beyond his shock.

No one had ever said those words to him.

"Because you're here in front of this Memorial," she said gently, eyes softening. "You've lost people and you come back because the guilt brings you here... Like it does for me."

Another flash of surprise ran through him. He knew it couldn't possibly be similar to his loss as a shinobi, but ultimately, death was death. He was younger than her when he first found his father's dead body in the doorway. With a pang of sorrow, he wondered who she had lost at such a young age. Her background check gave no indication to early loss, but it was more than possible the girl saw death while traveling to other countries.

"I'm sorry," he muttered quietly, not knowing what else to say.

A sudden smile took hold of her lips. "But you know, Shinobi-san, I'm not sad. Sometimes it's hard and I feel like I could have always done better, but I remember that those who left me behind, are people that I always carry with me. They made me a better person. I'm here because they loved me more than I could ever understand."

Kakashi felt speechless now. Every word she spoke felt like a knife in his heart.

"So you shouldn't be sad too!" She concluded, hands on her hips. She was on her feet, but they were still eye to eye with him in a low crouch. "I'm sure everyone is cheering you on. You should cheer on yourself too."

And for the first time in as long as he could remember, he received a hug. A genuine, full body embrace of care.

He had forgotten how warm people were.

Her hair tickled the side of his neck but Kakashi didn't have the heart to push her away. Somewhere inside, he needed this more than she could have ever understood.

With a sheepish giggle, she pulled back and ran her fingers through his silver locks, vocally admiring the funny color.

"I have Academy classes now, I have to go!" she pulled back, giving him a pat on the head like he was some child. "Bye bye, Shinobi-san! Let's meet again someday!"

With a wave of her hand, she ran towards the center of the village, three bento boxes wrapped delicately in her hands.

Kakashi watched her leave with awe.

It was a memory that no other soul knew, a memory he kept close to his heart, and a memory he never forgot.

.

* * *

.

It was dead in the night when Sakura felt her wrist burn.

She jumped awake, staring in horror at the wooden bracelet on her wrist— the receiver for the one she had made for Gaara.

 _No, no, no._ It's been less than a year since she saw him. He was making good progress. She had left with the notion that his lonely childhood could be different this time around. Yet the charm would only react if Gaara's seal momentarily broke and Shukaku took over.

Bolting out of bed, Sakura threw on some appropriate clothing, not bothering to use her Anbu gear. If she was spotted with it in Suna grounds, war would break out. Instead, she settled for a simple henge, transforming into a passable Suna civilian.

Leaving behind a clone, Sakura concentrated on one of the many Hiraishin seals she left behind in Suna, and disappeared in a flash.

She landed in a dark alley far from the center of the village, but the feeling was unmistakable. Shukaku's raging chakra was pressing over the entire place, she could hear civilians and shinobi alike, running around in terror.

Masking her presence, she leaped onto the rooftops, getting her first glimpse of the Ichibi. The last time she had seen him, he was chasing her and Kakashi through Suna, eyes brimming with the Rinnegan's control.

Shaking away those thoughts, Sakura leapt soundlessly through the dark night, keeping her eye on the battle. Rasa had emerged from his tower, trying to subdue the beast with his gold dust.

When Sakura landed on a larger building closer to the chaos, she nearly gagged at the sight. What was once a body was now torn apart across the roof, blood and burnt organs spilling into a pool. She crouched down, knowing that it was proof of Yashamaru's last mission below her.

Hatred for the Fourth Kazekage burned in her chest as she glared at the battle, noting that the Ichibi was slowly being pushed back from the heavy weight of the gold.

Now was her only chance.

Just as Shukaku's form began to waver, disappearing into Gaara's seal, Rasa staggered in exhaustion, shouting orders to many of the Anbu around him.

Before they could approach the unconscious boy, Sakura called the tug of her Hiraishin seal on Gaara's wrist, appearing before him in a white flash. The Anbu stilled at her sudden presence, reaching for their weapons as murmurs of alarm rang between them.

"Who are you? This is no place for civilians!"

Ignoring them, she crouched down, gently pushing back Gaara's bangs. Tears threatened to rim her eyes as she saw the bloody remains of the kanji he seared into his own forehead. He was seven. _Seven._

Yet history has repeated itself.

"Remove your hands, now," another Anbu ordered lowly. "And step away from the boy."

Her hand pulsed with green chakra as she placed it on his forehead, urging the injury to heal faster. She knew the scar would never fade though— tailed-beast chakra had that effect.

"You're going to regret this, Kazekage-sama," she muttered, knowing that the man could hear her. He had not moved his gaze away since she appeared. "You placed your village before the well-being of your son, and one day, that belief is going to come back and _take your life_."

It would be what he deserved after placing his trust in Orochimaru.

Rasa's eyes narrowed. "Capture her."

The Anbu bolted forward but they were slow from the battle, and Sakura had seen what she came for.

Giving one last look at Gaara's face, she closed her eyes and vanished from Suna, landing silently in her room. She dropped her henge and dispelled her clone, removing the shirt stained slightly with Gaara's blood.

Without warning the tears began to fall, and she buried her face in her pillow.

She would leave him to Naruto. He was the only true hope Gaara had left.

.

* * *

.

"Sakura-san, please go out with me! I'll protect you until the day I die!"

Blowing a strand of hair out of her face, Sakura smiled softly. Lee was standing on the other end of the training ground, chest puffed up in hope and cheeks reddened. Tenten was looking warily between the two of them, sighing into her hand. It had been a little over a month since she took down Neji in their brief fight, and Lee made this attempt at least once a week.

Only, it was the first time he found her alone— no Naruto or Sasuke to chase him away before she could speak.

She stood from her stretch, meeting his gaze steadily. Lee was the second in Gai's team to pass away, and he died doing exactly what he said he would— by protecting her. She had held him as his life quickly drained away, unable to ease his pain.

Yet he died with a smile on his face.

It was after his death that Sakura swore to herself never to give up. For whatever seemed impossible, she would _make_ it possible.

"That's very flattering Lee-san, but I don't want you to die protecting me," she replied. _Not this time._

"How youthful is your consideration, Sakura-san!" he proclaimed. "You are truly a young blossom that will sweep Konoha off its roots!"

"It is not your duty to protect me, Lee-san," she continued. "Your duty is to your team first and foremost— and to your personal growth as a shinobi."

"But you are also a valiant member of Konoha! One I will protect at all costs!"

"Lee, please just let it go," Tenten groaned from behind him. "You saw her take down Neji just last month! For you, who can't come close to defeating him— what makes you think Sakura-san even _needs_ your protection?"

Lee's shoulders slumped in clear understanding, dropping his nice-guy pose. "You're right. It seems like I am unworthy of your love right now, Sakura-san."

Tenten smacked her forehead, muttering under her breath about how that wasn't what she meant at all.

"I will train harder to become a great shinobi then!" Lee roared, his spirit coming back to life. "A man who is surely worthy of your respect and can protect you until the end! Youth!"

With a final fist pump, Lee scrambled out of the training ground, proclaiming the many laps he was to run around the village.

Sakura watched him leave with exasperation, noticing that he had left Tenten behind. She glanced at the other girl, giving her a small smile. "Please make sure he doesn't over do it, Tenten-san. I have a feeling that he's that type of guy."

"Oh, you have no idea," Tenten muttered. "But I'm sure you experience some of that with your own two friends, Sakura-san?"

"Just Sakura is fine," she said easily, thinking about Naruto and Sasuke's antics. "And yes, I do know exactly what you're talking about."

"Then it's just Tenten for you as well," she gave a grin, putting her hands on her hips. "Lee's great admiration of you will tone down if you give him time. He was incredibly overwhelmed when Neji made a curt apology last month thanks to your deal— the Hyuuga never do that, after all."

Sakura let herself smile at the thought. "I hope I haven't hurt him too much."

"No, I think you wounded his pride far more than any physical injuries," Tenten giggled. "Ever since he got out of the Hospital, he seems to be considering what you said."

She perked at the news. "I would hope so."

"He has. Anyway, I do have to get going," Tenten sighed. "My team agreed to meet soon for our daily practice. It was nice talking to you, Sakura."

"You as well," she inclined her head. "And please tell Lee-san, that it's not him who is undeserving… but me, who is unworthy of him."

She gave her a quizzical look before nodding and turning on her heel, dashing off after her green-clad teammate. It was the start of a long and close friendship Sakura hadn't had in the past.

.

* * *

.

Sarutobi gave a weary sigh as he listened to the latest mission report, eyes never leaving the shinobi in front of him.

"Something must be going on in Kiri that we're not aware of," he mumbled, glancing through the paper again. It was the first time Kakashi had turned in such a thorough report, and he could understand why.

"Zabuza didn't reveal much at all," Kakashi said tightly, obviously bothered by the issue as well. "But I do believe the only thing that we can conclude is that the White Anbu had information regarding their Kage."

Rubbing the bridge of his nose, Sarutobi gave a small nod in confirmation. "Very well then, Kakashi, you may go."

To his surprise, the masked-nin stayed rooted in his spot, looking rather solemn. "Hokage-sama… Naruto deserves to know. They all do."

He stilled, not having expected such a request. He knew exactly what the man was talking about.

"The Chunin Exams are coming up soon and you know Genin face life or death situations in that trial," he continued. "Would you rather have Naruto figure it out for himself in the middle of a battlefield, or be equipped with the knowledge?"

"He's still a boy," Sarutobi tried to argue, knowing his excuse sounded weak.

"He is my soldier, Hokage-sama," Kakashi replied evenly. " _Your_ soldier. He needs to understand where he comes from and why he was chosen."

"Minato wanted his son to be protected— "

"Protected, but not coddled," he shot back. "If not his lineage, then at least the beast inside him."

Sarutobi frowned deeply, staring at the unwavering man before him. "You feel every strongly about this, Kakashi."

"Yes."

"You wish for his teammates to know as well?" he asked in disbelief. "And if it shakes their tentative bonds?"

"It won't," Kakashi said confidently. "I've seen the way they interact as a team, and as friends. Hokage-sama even you saw a little bit of their friendship before they were placed under my tutelage. If it's those two, they'll give Naruto the support he needs."

Sarutobi gave a sharp exhale, rubbing his forehead. "Very well. Bring them in."

Without time for him to take the words back, Kakashi flashed out of the office, leaving nothing but leaves in his wake.

He turned in his chair, glancing out the window and wondered if Kakashi was right. It was time to stop coddling the boy and let him grow up to be the man Minato and Kushina had always wanted him to be.

Within the hour, his door burst open with a sharp cry of, "Jiji! We're here!"

Naruto ran into the room, energetic as always, his two teammates walking in after. Kakashi stepped in last, closing the door behind him.

"Did you get my mission report, Jiji?" Naruto asked hurriedly. "I made sure to write all the awesome details of what happened!"

He smiled. "Yes. I heard you got a bridge named after you."

Naruto went surprisingly red, blushing to his ears. "It was nothing, really. I— uh, was just wanted to prove to Inari that he shouldn't give up. Even if Gato was killed, everyone in the village was so depressing! I couldn't just let them be!"

Kakashi gave a pointed look at him from behind the group, and Sarutobi inwardly sighed. This was it.

"Listen Naruto, I asked you and your team to meet me here for a very special reason."

His eyes lit up in anticipation. "Really? What is it? A new mission?"

"A story," he replied, watching the boy visibly deflate. "A story from twelve years ago."

From the corner of his eye, he saw Haruno Sakura's eyes go slightly wide. Everyone but Naruto seemed suddenly aware of the tense atmosphere in the office.

"A story?" Naruto repeated blandly. "Well, okay…"

"Twelve years ago on a dark night, the Kyuubi attacked our village, destroying everything and everyone in its path. The only person who was capable of going against it was— "

"The Yondaime," Naruto interrupted with a face. "Everyone knows that story. He defeated the Kyuubi by sacrificing his own life."

Sarutobi grimaced, looking into the boy's eyes. "No, Naruto. He _sealed_ the Kyuubi… he sealed the beast… into you."

There was a moment of silence as no one in the office moved.

"Huh?" Naruto grunted at last, eyes impossibly wide. "What… whadya mean, Jiji?"

"You have the Kyuubi sealed inside you. Tailed-beasts can't actually be killed because they are masses of chakra. They must be sealed inside a shinobi in order to contain them," he said slowly. "No one has ever told you because I made it a rule so that nobody spoke about it in the village, so I can protect you—"

"That's why," Naruto breathlessly interrupted, eyes downcast and dark. "That's why they all hate me… That's why they call me a freak, and a monster—"

"That isn't true, Naruto," he said sternly, unable to handle the boy's crushed expression. "Those people are simply afraid because the Kyuubi had caused many of their loved ones to die. They don't understand what really happened."

"But what if they're right, Jiji?" he whispered back, voice shaking. "What if I turn into the Kyuubi or something happens? And I really do hurt someone?"

"You won't," he assured. "The seal the Yondaime created is very powerful, and it'll keep the Kyuubi locked away. He won't be able to hurt anyone, and neither will you."

Sarutobi couldn't say the same for emotional peaks, because he knew if Naruto ever felt desperate enough, the Kyuubi could be called no matter how enforced the seal was.

Naruto rubbed his cheeks. "But in the end, I guess I'm still a freak."

Before Sarutobi could protest, another strong voice broke through.

"No!" Sakura yelled in defiance, her face puffed in a mixture of emotions. "You're not a monster, Naruto. Never. You're my friend. You're a treasured shinobi of Konoha. You're not what they say you are!"

Naruto's lips began to tremble as he looked back at his teammate. "S-Sakura-chan…"

"She's right," Sasuke crossed his arms, looking rather stern. "Just because the Kyuubi is sealed inside you doesn't make you any less Naruto."

"Sasuke…" Naruto swallowed thickly, eyes filled with threatening with more tears. "Y-You guys really mean it?"

"Of course, Naruto," Kakashi nodded, his one eye showing more emotion than Sarutobi had seen in years. Taking on the team had surely changed him as well. "You're a part of Team Seven now."

Naruto charged the closest person with a tear filled hug, and Sasuke caught the blonde with a grunt, unable to push him off like he would normally do. Smiling softly, Sakura took both boys into her arms, lifting them with her monstrous strength as she squeezed tightly.

For the first time in as long as he could remember, Sarutobi felt a sense of peace rest on his shoulders as he watched the scene.

Kakashi was right. These two would be the ones Naruto carried with him for the rest of his life.

.

* * *

.

The scorching heat of the midday sun tingled her skin as she breathed harshly, and Sakura likened her throat to the dryness of the Suna desert.

"Water," Kanae ordered, flicking his massive tail towards the river.

She dragged herself over to the edge, practically dumping her entire face into the river and greedily quenching her thirst. She lifted herself with a gasp of breath, still heaving.

Gracelessly flipping onto her back, Sakura stared at the clear skies, noting that not a single cloud was in sight.

Shikamaru would have been devastated.

Her eyes glanced around, taking in the land around her. Trees of brilliant green grew strongly even under the blistering heat of the sun, a thick river ran through the ground, leading to a magnificent temple near the top of the hill, and the dirt under her body always reflected a pure quality, almost like they were fractions of gold.

It was the home of her beloved lizard summons.

The land had been her constant refuge for many years, hiding her away from the rest of the world. It was the place she came to for serious training, knowing she wouldn't be interrupted or wrongly discovered.

It was her haven.

"Success or failure, Sakura?" Kanae asked, flicking out his forked tongue.

She gave a wide grin. "Success. It actually worked—took a huge amount of my chakra, but it worked."

He gave a pleased grumble. "As I would have expected. What is your difference now?"

Pushing herself to a more respectable sitting position, Sakura continued to grin happily. "My original Hiraishin seals had a landing diameter of a meter per mark. Even when I used more chakra, the seal kept me contained to a single meter. My new seal that contains the chakra webbing has an area of a _kilometer_. I can now transport myself anywhere within that range using the same seal mark."

"So you've overcome a great weakness," Kanae nodded in approval. "You no longer have to mark your opponent in battle to reach them, or even use multiple seals like the Yondaime—anything nearby will do."

"It's a huge improvement, but the sheer amount of chakra it takes is inconvenient," she admitted tiredly. "I would only be able to make five or six of these seals before getting exhausted of chakra. It's not practical at all."

"Then fix it," the giant lizard stated, dropping his heavy form into the sand.

Sakura gave him a smile. This was why she preferred to train with Kanae. He was incredibly no-nonsense and took no excuses from anyone, demanding the issues to be seen and dealt with.

He and Tsunade would have gotten along mightily well.

"Hai, Kanae-sama," she chirped, giving him a mock salute.

He gave a growl. "How long until your Chunin Exams?"

She blinked seriously at the change in topic, expression hardening.

"Three weeks at most," she said lowly. "From my nightly outlooks on Konoha, I can tell the border schedule has changed already, and less missions are being taken out of the village."

"And are your preparations coming along?"

"As much as I can," she nodded. "The only thing I can really do now is prepare for our conflict with Orochimaru."

Kanae narrowed his amber eyes at the name, the scarred side of his face scrunching harshly. "He will come without a doubt?"

"Jiraiya-sama said he would," Sakura replied in thought. "He defected from Akatsuki already, built Otogakure, attempted to take Itachi's body, and made his curse seals. Although, I'm not sure if they were ever perfected after Jugo and Kimimaro left."

"And what are those boys like now?" Kanae asked, surprisingly curious.

She grinned widely. "Well, they both turned fifteen this year, and had a jealous worthy growth spurt since I've seen them. They came by Konoha last year, and from what I can tell, their time away from Orochimaru really changed them. Even though the three years of our original agreement is up, neither went back to him. In fact, I think they're wandering somewhere in Suna at the moment— I have to check up with one of Jugo's birds this evening to find out."

"You're happy for them" he observed.

"Of course I am," she nodded. "They were children forced into blood at such a young age, caged into isolation, and kept away from society."

"That's much of the shinobi life, Sakura," he noted. "And a part of yours as well."

She shook her head, a sense of shame filling her chest. "No. You should have seen my childhood. I was spoiled beyond measure, didn't appreciate my parents, my friends, or my village. I was so self-centered that I was just blind to the rest of the world. I was a terrible shinobi, always useless, always in the way, it was no wonder I became such a burden. I wasn't ready for the reality of being a shinobi, and every day I think about children like Jugo and Kimimaro, it makes me realize how lucky and privileged I was."

"But you learned, and you grew, and you're making a valiant effort to change things," he said seriously. "That's all that matters now."

Sakura allowed a small smile to grace her face. "I hope you're right. I want to make a lot of differences this time around. I have so many people to repay."

Settling himself on his belly, he gave her an inquisitive stare. "Is your space seal perfected?"

"The one for Black Zetsu?"

"Hm."

She rubbed the back of her head in thought. "Theoretically yes. I've tested it on inanimate objects first, then small animals. Successful both ways. All subjects are placed into a pocket of space and locked there with my chakra. I really have to thank Obito for this."

"Seal Orochimaru with it," he ordered.

Sakura blinked in disbelief. "You can't be serious."

"I am," he snapped. "You can't expect to fight him head on in the middle of the Chunin Exams without getting discovered. He'll be underestimating you greatly, and once this chance is gone, who knows when it'll come again. If you can seal him now, a major piece can be taken out."

She thinned her lips, mind whirling with possible situations. " _If_ I can, that is."

"I want your new Hiraishin seal perfected by then," he demanded strictly. "No unnecessary chakra drainage."

She snapped her head to him, mouth wide. "That's impossible and you know it! It took me seven _years_ to master the Hiraishin and four more years to expand it like this. Perfecting this in three weeks—"

"You will do it," he said strongly. "You're no longer that weak hatchling from back then—you swore on your contract with us that you would do anything to achieve your ends, _never giving up_."

She closed her mouth with a snap, feeling her face burn. "I did."

"Do not forget yourself, Sakura," he said firmly. "You are strong. You are our destined one, the Shinobi that every summon in this land would lower their life for—you are the eagle born amidst a village of chicks, it's time you take your wings and make use of them!"

Swallowing back her sense of self-pity, she gave a firm nod. "You're right. It's time I fly out, isn't it?"

A satisfied smirk tugged the corner of his mouth. "It's about damn time, Sakura."

.

* * *

.

Sakura narrowed her eyes dangerously, watching the two boys fidget, looking anywhere but into her eyes. She was dressed in casual clothes with a large apron wrapped around her body, and a sizzling spatula in her hand.

"What day is it today?" she asked lowly.

Naruto gulped. "Um… the first?"

"And what happens on the first day of every month?" Sakura inquired.

"Team Seven dinner at Sakura-chan's house," Naruto mumbled, still not looking at her.

"So do tell," she raised an eyebrow. "Where's Kakashi-sensei?"

Immediately, both boys burst into excuses.

"Naruto let him get away!" Sasuke jabbed a finger at said blonde. "He—"

"I did _not,_ teme! He had you distracted first, while talking about your great and mighty aniki!"

"Don't insult my nii-san, dobe! You were the one who was supposed to hold him down!"

"It was supposed to be _teamwork_ —"

"Yeah, cause we made a plan, and you forgot about it!"

"I was improvising! Sensei's too fast to get caught in that dumb idea of yours—"

"Naruto," Sakura interrupted, drawing out his name while lifting her spatula in a sign of silence. "Sasuke."

Both boys swallowed nervously.

"So, for the fourth month in a row, you guys let Kakashi-sensei get away from Team Seven dinner."

"He doesn't _want_ to, Sakura," Sasuke muttered. "I don't know why you're so pressed on getting him to come over."

She fought the urge to smack him in the head, settling for a sigh instead. "When you two think of Kakashi-sensei, who in association do you think of?"

"Us?" Naruto answered with uncertainty.

She shook her head. "Apart from us. You remember me reading about his past right? Who's left of the Hatake family? Who's left of his original team with the Yondaime? _Who_ does Kakashi go to after a long day of missions?"

Understanding dawned through their eyes. Sasuke could grasp the basic concept of having no one, but he still had his clan. He was never alone. Naruto on the other hand, understood completely.

"He has no one," Naruto murmured.

"He's lost a lot of people in his life," Sakura said softly, memories swirling in her head. "It's not a matter that he doesn't _want_ to come, he just doesn't know how. I'm willing to bet it's been a long time since he's had close people in his life everyday. We're his family now, don't you agree?"

Silence settled in the kitchen as Naruto and Sasuke looked solemn. Sakura slipped off her apron, tossed the spatula into the sink, and looked towards the boys with a raised eyebrow. "Well then, shall we go find him?"

With renewed vigor, the three genin burst outside, running along the rooftops for any sight of their sensei. It was nearing sunset, and Sakura knew they had little time before night fell.

"We lost him near the Hokage Mountain," Sasuke supplied.

"Okay," she breathed, stretching her shoulders. "Naruto, you check the shopping district as well as the bars. Sasuke, get the main roads and central buildings. I'll snoop around the training grounds. Utilize clones when you spot him— we're going to bring him in together, as a team."

They gave her a firm nod before bolting in opposite directions, leaving Sakura to change gears and head towards the closest training area.

She flew through the air, flashing through every training ground she came across, keeping her senses keen. There was hardly anyone in the outskirts of Konoha during this time, it was easy to feel a chakra signature and dismiss them from the man she was searching for.

The longer Sakura ran around for, the more she was sure of where she could find him. There was only one place Kakashi went in times of solitude.

Taking a shortcut to Training Ground Three, she leapt over the trees, pumping chakra into her legs to quicken her pace. Within minutes, she landed silently on the grounds, immediately picking up Kakashi's signature. With a quick hand sign, two clones popped into existence, then bolted off, each running tell Naruto and Sasuke of her discovery.

Rising to her feet, Sakura made her way towards the Memorial Stone, eyes boring into Kakashi's back.

"Are you here to mourn the dead, Sakura?" he asked, not bothering to turn around and face her.

She stopped a respectable distance away, smiling. "No. I'm here to celebrate the living."

"Hmm. I don't think you've come to the right place then."

"I'm exactly where I need to be, Kakashi-sensei," she answered evenly. She felt her clones dispel as their memories returned to her, and she knew that both boys were on their way. "You're still alive, aren't you? I'm sure those who've been engraved in that stone would want you to live happily too."

He gave a small chuckle. "You know, I met a little girl here once, and she said the same thing to me too."

Sakura fought back a smile, knowing that Kakashi had expected her to forget their first meeting at the Memorial Stone. Besides, she wasn't supposed to recognize his Anbu mask or his hair.

"Well she isn't wrong," Sakura shrugged. "You have family now. And we'll always be here for you."

"Sensei!" Naruto's voice boomed through the training ground as he landed roughly onto the dirt, skidding to a stop. Sasuke came running in a moment after. "We found you! And you're not gonna get away this time!"

Kakashi finally turned around, facing his three students with a one-eyed stare. "Well, if it isn't my cute little genin team. You guys grow up so fast."

"Cut it out, sensei," Sasuke frowned. "We're here to make things straight."

"Why so?" he asked innocently. "I didn't know we had such a thing."

"Until you yield, we won't be giving up," Sakura announced. "And when you do, we'll have a team dinner together."

Kakashi's eye sharpened, glancing at the three of them. "Make me _yield_? I'm not sure you three are prepared for such a thing."

In a way, he was right. Sakura was still dressed in her casual clothes, and so were Naruto and Sasuke. None of them _had_ prepared for this. All their additional weapons were left at home.

"Screw shinobi gear!" Naruto yelled. "We'll make you yield for sure!"

Without warning, Naruto charged, and Sakura didn't hesitate to run after him. Surprise flickered through Kakashi's one eye before he braced himself in a stance.

" _Kage Bunshin no Jutsu_!"

Six more Narutos exploded into being, leaping at Kakashi with a battle cry. Sasuke jumped in, engaging in the mass taijutsu battle.

Coating her fingertips with chakra, Sakura joined the fray, trying to get one small tap on the Jounin'sbody. If she could get even one jab, she could disable whatever limb was closest. Kakashi eyed her hand carefully as he danced around the other two, popping out clones with incredible speed.

"Maa," Kakashi grunted, blocking a high kick from Sasuke. "You guys are serious, aren't you?"

"Family is always serious!" Naruto yelled back, throwing a punch that Kakashi smoothly dodged.

Sakura smashed her foot into the ground, concentrating her chakra to contain the destruction as much as possible. The earth groaned, splitting open under her foot, and Kakashi lost his balance just in time for Sasuke to make a comeback. He jumped forward with renewed speed, fist flying— but Kakashi's leg was longer. He slammed Sasuke straight in the stomach, sending him flying across the training ground.

"Sasuke!" Naruto yelled, turning his head.

"Don't let yourself be distracted, Naruto," Kakashi warned, grabbing the orange collar of his jacket and throwing him into the trees.

Sakura came in from behind, picking up her speed in order to match him one-on-one. They danced around each other's moves, and she swerved around his longer reach, already used to fighting without her old body.

It was if they were sparring like old times, and Sakura briefly saw a different version of Kakashi before her, his hair long and messy, mask long forgotten, and two black eyes staring straight at her.

She stared right back, a smile tugging at her lips. "We're not a team without you, sensei."

That seemed to jolt something within him, as his fist hesitated for a fraction. Kakashi grunted in surprise as she jumped forward, forcing her body around his fist and throwing her legs over his shoulder in a tight lock. Naruto shouted with renewed vigor as he returned, clutching Kakashi's torso from the front in an effort to keep their sensei still.

Taking the final opportunity, Sasuke threw himself against the back of Kakashi's knees, sending all four of them tumbling into the dirt.

There were cries and and shouts of alarm as they landed in a mess of limbs on the floor, yet somehow, still holding on to Kakashi.

"We won't let go!" Naruto cried stubbornly, undoubtedly being crushed under all their weights.

"Yield, sensei," Sasuke demanded.

"We're not going anywhere," she finished, staring at Kakashi in the eye.

At last, the man seemed to relax under their grips, releasing a year-long sigh. "Maa… I've got such a stubborn team, don't I."

"And we've got an equally stubborn sensei," Naruto glared.

After another long moment, Kakashi hummed. "Very well, I yield."

Cheers and shouts of triumph rang through Training Ground Three, all three students too occupied to see Kakashi's visible eye glistening against the light of the sunset.

And Sakura, without a doubt, had one of the best dinners in memory— past and present.

.

* * *

.

Sasuke sensed the redhead before he saw him. His chakra was thick and oppressing, almost as if it had a mind of its own, wanting to suffocate all those in its path. The feeling was unmistakable.

Killing intent.

Naruto was glaring at the other two sand shinobi, Konohamaru partially hiding behind his back. Sakura was nowhere in sight, and he briefly remembered that she had left for the Nara compound after the mission.

Sasuke glanced at the newcomer with narrowed eyes, taking in his fiery red hair and pale skin. A large gourd hung around his back, but the most striking point of his appearance was his face. Dark lines surrounded his eyes as if he hadn't slept in years, and a red scar tinted the side of his forehead.

Love.

"Kankuro. Stop it," the redhead ordered, voice unnaturally low and cold. "You're being an embarrassment to our village."

The shinobi with face paint paled dramatically, and the blonde girl next to him did the same.

"Gaara…" the one named Kankuro muttered, looking ready to bolt.

Gaara? The name struck a chord in his mind, and Sasuke turned to look at Naruto, wondering if he recognized the name too.

Where had he heard it?

"Losing control of yourself in a fight… Pathetic," Gaara retorted. "Did you forget why we came to Konoha in the first place?"

"Listen," Kankuro stammered out, raising his hands. "They started it. I was only—"

"Shut up," Gaara commanded, looking downright murderous. "I'll kill you."

"All right, I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

Sasuke jumped down from the tree as Gaara did the same, reappearing in a swirl of sand.

"Sasuke, you show off," Naruto pouted, giving him a sideways glare. "I had it all under control."

"Control?" He repeated, raising a brow. "Naruto, you and the word control don't even go together."

"What was that, teme?" He protested, eye twitching. "It's not like you're any better! Sakura-chan can totally beat you!"

He was right, of course. Sasuke glared back at the jab, feeling his competitive spirit arise, and the foreign shinobi in front of him momentarily forgotten.

"I wasn't talking about chakra control, but now that we're on the subject, do I need to remind you that it was me who finished the tree and water walking exercise first?"

Naruto grumbled. "Well I have _way_ more chakra than you! And both Kaka-sensei and Sakura-chan said my stamina outlasts yours!"

Before Sasuke could get in his reply, a burst of sand came from ahead and he reacted just in time, leaping out of the way with Naruto. Konohamaru let out a scream in alarm, landing on his rear. Turning to see where the attack had come from, all sense of banter out of his head, he narrowed his eyes at the redhead.

"You two," Gaara said suddenly, eyes intensely focused. "Are you speaking of Haruno Sakura?"

Sakura.

The name finally clicked.

" _His name is Gaara!" She revealed excitedly. "He has really pretty red hair and can control sand. He's really nice! I think you three would get along well!"_

No wonder he hadn't remembered right away. The first and last time Sasuke heard Gaara's name was over six years ago.

He looked back at the redhead in a new light, wondering what happened to him since their meeting. 'Nice' and 'get along well' would _not_ describe their current predicament.

"What of it?" Naruto bellowed, obviously having forgotten all about Sakura's 'friend' in Suna. "She's _our_ teammate. How the hell do you know Sakura-chan?"

Gaara's face went cold, and his eyes seemed to harden. "Tell her she was wrong. There is nothing but hate and betrayal in this world, and without a doubt, I'll prove it to her the next time we meet in battle."

Sasuke stiffened at the clear threat to his teammate and best friend, chest tightening with anger.

"You'll have to get through Naruto and I," he said fiercely. "Just try— you won't get away with it."

Something in his green eyes seemed to snap. "Then I'll kill you too."

The tension between them skyrocketed with his reply, and Sasuke clenched his hand into a first, ready to move when necessary. Naruto crouched slightly, preparing to fight.

"Gaara," the blonde girl muttered, looking afraid for her life. "O-Our permit for the Chunin Exams said no fighting. You'll get yourself disqualified—"

"I know." His deadly aura loosened by a fraction as he turned to look at the girl. "They're not the ones I want to fight anyway. Let's go."

Naruto growled at the implication, but before he could get a word in, the three flashed out of the road.

"That bastard!" Naruto yelled into the empty street. "How dare he threaten Sakura-chan with some crazy message? What the hell was that supposed to mean anyway?"

"Dobe, don't you remember?" Sasuke asked seriously, still feeling tense. "That's the friend Sakura was talking about all those years ago. Gaara."

Naruto scrunched his face in thought. "Um, no?"

Sighing, he smacked the blonde upside the head and began walking down the street.

"Ow! Teme! Where are you going? We have to warn Sakura-chan about this!"

"We'll tell her later," he shouted back, stuffing his hands into his pockets. "Sensei wanted us to meet at the bridge tomorrow anyway."

Grumbling, Naruto followed after, muttering about all the silly little redheads he was going to defeat.

Ignoring his teammate, Sasuke walked through the streets in deep thought.

 _There is nothing but hate and betrayal in this world._

Without the need for hesitation, he inwardly disagreed. There was so much more to life, and that was one thing he was absolutely sure of.

It was treasuring the bonds of life.

.

* * *

.

After a relaxing evening spent with Shikamaru, Sakura sat in the confines of her room, meditating on the upcoming exams.

If there was one thing Jiraiya had told her about Orochimaru, it was that his desire to crush Konoha was stronger than anything else. There was something to be proven, especially if he could kill the Hokage in the process and destroy the village that had ostracized him as a shinobi.

Yet, Sasuke still hadn't awakened his Sharingan—both a good and a bad thing. She wanted him to be as ready as possible for the upcoming exam and invasion, but she also wanted him to awaken his bloodline with love, not hate, just like Itachi and Shisui had done. Their Sharingan both appeared with a strong desire to protect, and that's what Sasuke needed.

Frowning in thought, she considered everything that needed to be done during the invasion. She absolutely could not allow Sasuke to get marked. Even if it meant restraining the Uchiha herself and fighting Orochimaru head on, she would do it. Ultimately, their fight in the forest had to be quick— she needed to catch him by surprise and seal him away into limbo for eternity.

She knew Naruto and Sasuke could handle Gaara perfectly fine without her, so it left her an area of freedom to track Kabuto down after the exam was cut short. Tsunade would eventually return to Konoha for Lee's surgery, revamp the entire medic-nin structure and take the leading mantle for Hokage while Sarutobi quietly resigned once more.

At least, Sakura could hope.

There were too many variables that were still missing from her plan—too many pieces that she didn't have knowledge of.

Again, she could only trust in her instincts to take her there.

A white falcon flew in the sky outside of her window, and Sakura opened her eyes to peek at the message. Being under Tsunade's tutelage for so long meant that she understood every coded message within Konoha.

The Jōnin's were assembling, meaning; the exams were only a week away.

Giving a soft exhale to release the tension in her muscles, Sakura rose to her feet. Kakashi had asked to meet them on the bridge, and she knew he was going to nominate them for the exams.

She glanced at her clock, realizing that she had five minutes until the meeting time. Now that she, Naruto and Sasuke were pulling prank after prank on the man every time he was late, Kakashi made a shocking habit of actually being somewhat on time.

Jumping out her window, Sakura made her way down to the familiar bridge, spotting Naruto and Sasuke already there.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto grinned waving. "You've got to hear this! Teme and I met the weirdest people yesterday after our mission!"

"Oh?" she lifted an eyebrow, landing softly on the bridge. "Who was it this time?"

"Shinobi from Suna," Sasuke answered. "Did you know about the Chūnin Exams?"

"I did notice a sudden influx of shinobi," she nodded. "So what're they like?"

Both boys looked at each other, a silent message between them.

"We met him," Sasuke answered. "Your friend from Suna. The redhead with a gourd around his back."

Naruto mumbled under his breath about still not remembering him, while sakura stiffened ever so slightly. "He's changed hasn't he?"

"He threatened you, Sakura-chan!" Naruto growled. "He said— said… wait, what exactly did he say?"

Sasuke sighed as he bonked Naruto in the head with a fist. "He said that you were wrong. That there's nothing but hate and betrayal in this world, and he'll prove it to you when you meet him in battle."

She wasn't surprised. If all went according to plan, Sakura had no intention of meeting him in battle. She already had her own with him. It was time for Naruto and Sasuke to get through him.

She sighed, rubbing her forehead in thought.

"What's wrong with him, Sakura-chan? You're not really going to meet are you? He's crazy! He's so… ugh…"

"When I met Gaara, he was going through a very rough childhood," she explained, knowing that she could trust these two completely. "The entire village ostracized him for being a monster and a murderer because he couldn't control his power— power that wasn't his own but was sealed into him by force."

Naruto went still, blue eyes wide. He could understand that feeling perfectly. "What are you saying?"

She pursed her lips. "It's just a theory, but I believe that Gaara has a tailed beast sealed inside him too. He told me that sometimes he could hear a voice in his head, urging him to kill and forget the humans around him. To forget his village. I don't think his seal was done very well. I tried to befriend him and tell him how great the world was when you had someone to protect, to treasure… but something went wrong since then, and I'm sure he threw away everything that I've told him."

Naruto visibly wilted, eyes downcast. "He's like me then."

She leaned forward, placing her hands on his shoulders. "It's only a theory, but it's something I think we should keep in mind when dealing with him. I'm sure somewhere inside, he's also longing for acknowledgement of his own."

Both boys gave her a slow, but firm nod.

"Maa, what are you guys whispering about so early in the morning?" Kakashi appeared perched on the rail, chin propped in his palm. Three papers were held in his other hand.

The tense atmosphere broke immediately.

"It's almost noon," Sakura deadpanned, dropping her hands to her sides.

"Is it?" Kakashi asked with fake astonishment. "What a surprise."

"Cut the crap, sensei! Why'd you want us to meet here?" Naruto demanded, noticing the papers in his hand. "Are those—"

"Yep!" he said, eye crinkling. "I've nominated you three for the Chunin Exams next week."

Naruto cheered, tackling the Jōnin in a bear hug. He snatched his application from Kakashi's hand and began whispering under his breath of all the stupid shinobi he was going to defeat.

"Anyway, as I was saying," Kakashi dusted himself off, handing the last two applications out. "This is only a nomination. Whether to take the exam is up to each of you. If you do want to take it, then sign the papers and turn it into room 301 by tomorrow."

Sakura smirked. "We're taking it, sensei. We'll enter as a team and win as a team."

"Yeah! Sakura-chan's right! We'll defeat the strong guys together!" Naruto acclaimed.

Sasuke nodded.

"Heh," Kakashi smiled, ruffling each of their heads. "As I thought. I'll see you three tomorrow then."

With that, he disappeared in a cloud of smoke.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: It's been forever but I'm back! Lots of Uchiha in this chapter and the clash at the stage two Chunin Exams are finally here. Some more backstories as always to fill in Sakura's childhood and her shenanigans. I've decided to change the route of Sakura and Orochimaru's confrontation, adding in a few surprises that will hopefully continue to flow well with the fic.

As always, let me know of any suggestions or characters that Sakura should mess with. I really do read all your comments and have noted down multiple people I had forgotten about. Thank you to everyone for all the support and love even though updates are so sporadic!

El

* * *

Chapter 5

.

Every inch of Sakura's body was aching from exhaustion and strain, but she refused to let it show.

It was only supposed to be a recon mission. Get in, hunt for supplies and get out.

Konoha, or at least what was left of it, was one of Sasuke's most guarded areas. Whether it was due to some childhood familiarity to his ex-village or the fact that the old Uchiha district was inside, he had made it nigh impossible to gain entry.

Yet, desperate times called for desperate measures when Ino had been gravely injured in a surprise clash with the Rokubi, and Sakura was not enough to heal her of infection and poisonous bijū chakra.

She needed fluids and antibiotics, and she needed them _fast._

Sai had mentioned the high possibility of Danzō's underground Root network being still intact, as it dug three levels into the earth. All the supplies Root Anbu had used for both combat and medical purposes were wasting away.

They had been delayed a few days, but miraculously made it inside after careful watch. Sakura shoved armfuls of supplies into her massive storage seal, moving with haste. Kakashi was rummaging through each floor with her while Sai guarded the topmost level.

She knew their luck wouldn't last forever, and just as she feared, the maelstrom came without warning. The two of them were tearing apart Danzō's old office, when Sai's guarding ink bird explode into a puddle.

Kakashi immediately moved. "Time to go. _Now_!"

Bolting out of the room, Sakura heard the roar before she saw him. An earth trembling cry pierced through the decimated village, and a massive orange paw came into view as she and Kakashi ran from the building. The Kyūbi stalked around the corner, eyes brimming under the Rinnegan's control.

Sai ran towards them, clearly out of breath. "Sasuke must have had a genjutsu over him. I didn't sense him until he got close."

"Fly us out, Sai!"

A massive ink bird burst out as Kakashi finished his sentence, and the three made no hesitation in jumping on for dear life.

The wind picked up around them as Kurama's massive tails went flying, trying to knock them out of the air. The bird swerved and dodged, barely missing each time and Sakura felt her heart lodge in her throat with every move.

Sai was sending out more animals with every stroke, and Kakashi shot a stream of lighting anytime a tail or paw got too close.

 _Useless,_ Sakura thought, knowing she had no real long range attack to offer. _Useless again._

As soon as it felt like they would make it, there was a cry of pain as two tails came rushing in at either side and Sakura turned to see Sai slammed off the back of the bird.

"Sai!"

There was a crash as Sai went flying into an old house, only to reappear out the other side and thrown into another.

"We have to go back!" She cried, trying the steer the ink bird. "Turn around!"

Sakura knew without a doubt that Kakashi would never leave anyone behind, as he was the one who taught her such in the first place, but the look of worry in his eyes said enough.

The bird shot back around, and before she could spot him among the rubble, there was a burst of chakra and a massive ink tiger jumped into the battlefield.

It was larger than anything she had seen Sai conjure before, easily matching the Kyūbi in size and towering over the village.

There was a great clash as the two beasts collided, and Sakura spotted him below. "There!"

The bird dove, dodging wayward tails and upturned rubble once more, but Sakura could tell its lifeline was nearly gone. Its form began to flicker, unsupported by Sai's chakra.

"Get out of here!" Sai yelled up at them, noticing their struggle to descent. "I can distract the Kyūbi!"

"We're not leaving without you!" She screamed back, ducking under a tail.

"Ino needs you back!"

In the split second of their distraction, the tiger roared in struggle, falling to the weight of six tails, and the Kyūbi's focus shifted. His eyes gleamed towards Sai's unguarded back, paw raised for a strike.

And Sakura knew what was going to happen.

It was as if time was slowing down and all she could see was Sai doing his best to defend himself, leaping through the air. All attention seemed to be on him and suddenly there were too many tails, too many claws.

"Kakashi, take my hand!" She yelled, reaching behind her.

He knew what she was going to do. "You haven't perfected it yet! The Hiraishin will tear you apart!"

"Sai has my seal! I _need_ to try!"

He gripped her hand.

Sakura felt for the tug of her Hiraishin seal and she followed its path, hoping to every deity above that it worked.

 _Please!_

In a white flash, the two appeared beside Sai just as Kurama's paw caught him against a wall and a single claw impaled him right through the waist. Sakura grabbed a fistful of Sai's shirt, imagined the seal back at the base and vanished.

The imperfect space-time jutsu tore at her body as she suddenly reappeared in a long room, collapsing on all fours. Her skin was burning from the inside, ripped apart from the messy transportation. She coughed and heaved, stars dancing in front of her eyes, unable to breathe properly.

Kakashi groaned, releasing her hand and dragging himself up. With incredible effort, she forced her eyes to turn to Sai, cradling his face in her hands.

His blood spread so fast, it was a miracle he was still breathing. The hole in his body must have taken numerous organs along with it.

"Sai," she whimpered, her hands flickering green against the giant chasm in his waist. "It's gonna be okay… you look at me."

His gaze was glassy as he coughed, expelling blood. "You're such a bad liar."

The tears were unstoppable, and Sakura cried out, cradling his head with one hand and trying in vain to heal with the other.

"Stop talking," she muttered, voice breaking through her tears. She saw them drop rapidly onto Sai's face, then trail towards the ground. "I said you'll be okay… I got you."

His breathing was hoarse now, skin rapidly turning cold and blue. "Hag… you shouldn't cry… makes you look more… ugly…"

She broke into another sob. "You shithead. I said— I said to stop talking. Kakashi and I are right here."

A small smile stretched his lips as he lifted his head ever so slightly, looking as if it took all his effort. His forehead met hers briefly, slick with sweat and dirt.

"I'm glad…" he murmured, closing his eyes. "Thank you."

Their foreheads separated, and he fell back limply against her supporting arm.

"N-No! No, please!" She shook him, even though the rational side of her said it was too late. She hadn't been strong enough. " _Sai_!"

Distantly, she heard a bang as the door opened and footsteps ran towards them. Sakura couldn't see or even hear through her tears, but she knew that chakra signature now.

"Shikamaru," Kakashi called first, voice sounding much stronger than hers. "What happened?"

There was a torn hiccup as she raised her eyes just enough to see him, broken far beyond anything she had ever seen.

"Ino," he whispered, eyes clenched and fists tight. He took in a ragged breath, sounding all too crushed and weary. "She's gone."

There was a great moment of silence as Sakura tried to process that information, but it all seemed stuck. They had been too late.

She leaned her forehead back down, unable to even move. She felt numb.

"It's okay," she whispered. "Sai will keep her company."

.

* * *

.

Sakura fidgeted slightly as she stood outside the Yamanaka clan's flower shop, staring discreetly through the glass windows in order to peak at the girl inside. Ino was crouched down by a bed of water lilies, her small hands tending carefully for the flower while her mother sat behind the counter.

They were only five, having started the Academy a few months prior, and Sakura still hadn't had a single good interaction with her old friend.

An old friend she failed miserably in the past.

Steeling her nerves, Sakura walked through the open doorway, making her steps noticeable and clear.

"Welcome to Yamanaka Flowers, how can I—" Ino stopped mid-turn, staring at Sakura with recognition. "Oh wait, I know you! You're in my Academy class right?"

She nodded swiftly, watching Ino dust off her apron as she rose to her feet. "I'm Sakura."

"Ino," the girl stuck out her hand, and Sakura gave it quick shake. "You're the one that's always with that Naruto-baka and Sasuke-kun."

"Well yeah, I—"

"That's what all the other girls say, anyway," Ino interrupted, flipping her shoulder length hair back. "Do you like him too?"

"What?" she said lamely, not catching onto the blonde's quick change in words. "Say what? Like who?"

"Sasuke-kun!" Ino waved her hand, looking at her as if it was obvious. "You like Sasuke-kun too, right? That's why you always hang around him."

Sakura felt like punching something at that moment, wondering how Sasuke could be ruining her potential friendship for the second time around.

"Sasuke's just a friend," Sakura insisted. "Of course I like him, but not in that—"

"So you do!" Ino cut in, eyes wide. "I mean, there's _no_ way you wouldn't. He's the number one student in our year, and he's so handsome and cool." She sighed dreamily.

"I'm serious," she argued, scrunching her face in a grimace. "I don't like him that way."

Ino pursed her lips, suddenly looking extra bold. "Well _I_ like Sasuke-kun. I'm gonna marry him someday!"

Trying not to sigh in exasperation, Sakura gave a tight smile back. Appreciation of boys was always a part of Ino, no matter the day and age.

"And since you like Sasuke-kun too, you know what that makes us?" Ino leaned in, a gleam in her eyes.

"Friends?" She asked hopefully.

"No, Sakura! It makes us rivals in love!" She proclaimed, holding a water lily to her chest. "You may have some advantage now but this is just the beginning!"

She frowned. "But I don't like Sasuke like that."

"That's what you think," Ino shook her head with a devious grin. "All the shy girls say they don't like Sasuke-kun either, but I can tell they feel different. You'll admit it to yourself soon too."

Sakura stared back helplessly, unsure if she could convince the blonde otherwise anymore. As sad as it made her feel, her friendship with Ino would have to come naturally as it once did in the past.

"Well..." Sakura whispered. "Sasuke apparently likes girls with long hair."

Ino's eyes went wide, and she nodded quickly. "I heard that too! I'll prove my hair is the most beautiful for sure!"

If she were being honest, Sakura didn't think anyone in Konoha had prettier hair than Neji, but there was no way she would be caught saying that out loud. He'd probably skin her — or try to.

"You know what could be even better?" She continued, leaning in. "Training with us after the Academy finishes. Sasuke will be there."

Ino looked scandalized. "Training? I don't want Sasuke-kun to see me sweaty and gross. He can only see me at my most beautiful!"

"But you could impress him and improve your skills at the same time," she offered.

The blonde crossed her arms stubbornly, lips pulled into a pout. "I already do so much training with dad, like two hours everyday! Can you believe it, Sakura? He said, ' _now that you're becoming a true shinobi, you'll start learning our clan's ways_ '."

Sakura conceded. If Inoichi was taking good care of her, she could let the insistence on training together pass. For now that is.

Before Sakura could respond, a familiar voice shouted through the store.

"Ino!" Her mother called. "Can you come back here and help me with the roses?"

"Coming!" Ino yelled back. She turned to Sakura for a second, giving her a calculating look. "Guess I'll see you around, my rival in love."

Sakura chuckled, plucking the water lily from her hands and placing it in Ino's hair. She knew before traveling time that nothing was going to remain the same as she remembered, and that was something she had to sacrifice. Ino would grow up to be slightly different, but she would keep her promises this time around.

She'd protect her no matter what.

"See you later."

Turning on her heel, she walked out of the store, suddenly feeling her eyes prickle with tears. Her chest heaved with a deep sense of loneliness, and Sakura closed her eyes, letting the mid afternoon air cool her skin.

She took in a sharp breath, shaking her head of negative thoughts and headed down the street.

Now she had to find out if that silly rumor about Sasuke's hair preference was even true.

…

"Hey Sasuke, do you like long hair on girls?"

He gave her a disgusted look, face scrunching from the difficult katas they were doing.

"Ew. Girls are gross."

And that was exactly the sort of answer she had expected.

.

* * *

.

The first time Sakura really met Sasuke's parents, they were seven.

He had grumbled under his breath how his mother wanted her and Naruto to come over for dinner the next day, as she was dying to meet them properly.

Dropping off her half-unconscious son after a spar did not constitute as a proper meeting apparently.

"Sakura, please leave your running mouth at the door, and Naruto, have some table manners," Sasuke pleaded, looking rather serious.

Sakura raised a brow. She was quite well known to take shit from no one, even if they were well above her standing. Respect had to be earned, she believed, and the discrimination that often came from clan elders were not to be tolerated in her book.

"If your father gives me nothing to remark about, then my mouth will stay shut," she supplied.

Naruto just looked dejected. Table manners meant eating slower, and paying too much attention to where he put his elbows and trying not to talk. "Fine."

When Sakura and Naruto arrived outside the Uchiha compound, Sasuke met them at the gates and led them towards his place.

"Kaa-san, I'm back!" He called, slipping his shoes off at the door.

Sakura had met Uchiha Mikoto a few times while dropping Sasuke off, and knew the woman had a kind heart. She disliked being called 'Uchiha-san', saying there were way too many Uchihas in the house and it was just all hassle. From what Obito had told her, she and Naruto's mother had been close friends before the Kyūbi attack.

"Good evening, Mikoto-san!" Sakura greeted cheerily. "Thanks for inviting us over."

"Nonsense," she waved a hand. "Any friends of Sasuke are friends of the clan. I'm happy we can finally sit down together for a meal."

Sakura nodded, lifting up a small bundled box in her hand. "Naruto and I made dessert at my house earlier. It's dango."

Mikoto blinked in surprise, then smiled, taking the box from her hands. "Thank you both. My eldest son and I are both a big fan of sweets." She winked.

Naruto seemed to glow from the compliment, as he had gone through hell and back in the kitchen to make them with her. He proclaimed that anything that wasn't as easy to make as ramen was just too hard.

"Come on," Sasuke ushered, leading them towards the living room. "I'll show you around."

"Dinner will be ready in ten minutes, Sasuke," Mikoto reminded. "And wash your hands before you return."

"Yes, Kaa-san."

The three of them wandered the compound as Sasuke toured them throughout the long halls and the open rooms, occasionally stopping for Naruto's commentary or Sakura's questions. It was an obnoxiously large house, clearly more than necessary for four people, and holding rooms Sasuke had never even stepped in.

They had a wide backyard with well groomed trees, a koi pond, a garden, and a training field towards the back. Beyond the fence led to the forest that ran along the Naka River, and connected to the remaining Uchiha compound.

It was definitely luxurious.

They stopped by the washroom to clean their hands as Mikoto demanded, and waded their way back to the dining room.

At the large table, Sakura saw Itachi sitting at one corner, in quiet conversation with his father. This was her first good look at Fugaku, and she immediately noted where Sasuke got his adult physique. He was broad shouldered, obviously tall, and had a strong jaw that added to his constant serious expression.

This was the man that fell deeply into the Curse of Hatred, and would bring Konoha down to its knees with a coup— a future she could not allow to pass.

"Aniki! You're back!" Sasuke greeted, running ahead with a grin.

Itachi's attention was immediately taken away, and his eyes softened. "Otouto, I see you've finally brought your friends."

Sasuke jumped next to where Itachi sat, eyes eager. "How was the mission? What did you do? Where did you go?"

There was a stern throat clearing before Itachi could answer, and Sakura turned to see Fugaku sitting at the head of the table, eyes narrowed.

"Sasuke, I've said before that missions are confidential and are not to be spoken of like such," he said warningly.

"Yes, Otou-san," Sasuke immediately dropped his smile, sitting up a little straighter.

There was an awkward moment of silence as Sakura stood to the side with Naruto, who had been uncharacteristically quiet.

"And you two are?" Fugaku finally turned to them, expression like stone.

She stepped up first. "I'm Haruno Sakura, and this is Uzumaki Naruto. We're in the same Academy class as Sasuke, Uchiha-sama."

"Hn," he grunted, eyes assessing. "Haruno, huh?"

 _Civilian_ , she heard unsaid.

"And you want to be a kunoichi?" He pressed on, trying to determine her worth.

She blinked. "I want to be a _shinobi_ , Uchiha-sama. A front line medic-nin to be specific."

There was a flash of surprise through his gaze and Sasuke shot her a warning look at the correction. Itachi looked mildly interested.

"There hasn't been a successful front line medic-nin since Tsunade, a Senju," he remarked, a challenge in his tone. "You believe youcan live up to that?"

The taunt was clear in his voice, and Sakura steeled herself, ignoring the look on Sasuke's face.

"Certainly," she said with confidence, giving him the biggest smile she could manage. "Everyone in this room was nothing more than a mere Academy student at one point in their lives. Who's to say what I cannot achieve from here?"

The silence was deafening as Sasuke looked at her in horror, Itachi with well concealed surprise, and Fugaku with a frown.

Naruto's lid then blew off.

"Sakura-chan's the best!" He defended, glaring at the Uchiha head. "She'll definitely be better than that Tsunano person, 'ttebayo! She already beats Sasuke-teme easily!"

Said boy pressed his face into his hands, groaning quietly, and Sakura squeezed Naruto's hand.

"Is that so," Fugaku said darkly, eyes darting to his youngest son. "I was under the impression that you were at the top of your class, Sasuke?"

He seemed to shrink back into his older brother, looking as if he wanted to disappear. "I… I am."

Fugaku narrowed his eyes. "In name only it seems, if an Uchiha loses outside of the Academy." _To a civilian-born._

Before Sakura could argue, Itachi quickly intervened. "There is nothing lacking with his form or training, Otou-san. I have personally seen that Sakura-san just happens to excel in taijutsu. She would do well as a front line medic-nin."

The sudden support surprised her, but she had no time to thank him as Fugaku quickly turned back to her.

"And who in your… family, taught you such things?"

Sakura learned that the best way to fake the guise of a child prodigy was to give no excuses. No one had to teach them; there were just things that came after observation and analysis of their surroundings.

"I was not taught by family, Uchiha-sama. I simply happened to see an older shinobi training one day and became inspired by his form."

"And who is that older shinobi you speak of?" He shot back.

She smiled at him again, grin slightly feral. "I'm afraid I don't know his name. He does wear an incredibly eye catching green spandex suit however, and has a habit of training in the early mornings."

Gai's description was obviously recognized, and Sakura knew that man was too much sunshine for the Uchiha Head to deal with and question. But before anymore could be said, Mikoto came swooping into the room like an angel.

"Dinner is ready!"

Glancing at Naruto and giving Sasuke an apologetic look, she sat down at the side of the table, ignoring Fugaku altogether.

Dinner was a rather unusual affair, as the Uchiha Head mostly kept his attention on his sons, asking about noteworthy achievements and briefing over clan happenings. To her surprise, he didn't seem to exhibit any sort of discrimination against Naruto, clearly unruffled by the fact that the tailed beast responsible for all the accusations towards his clan was sitting only two spaces away, tucked away behind the blonde's navel.

Sakura was perfectly fine with the arrangement as she got to talk to Naruto all throughout dinner, occasionally bringing Mikoto into the conversation. When Fugaku opted to watch and listen, the table seemed to lift with Naruto's laughter and Sakura's unfiltered remarks. Sasuke's forced demeanor of cool eventually broke, and he too, argued with Naruto as usual.

At last, Fugaku rose from his place as dinner finished, not bothering to stay for dessert. He bid his family a temporary farewell, then turned to her and Naruto.

There was a gleam in his eyes of grudging respect, even if the rest of his face sat in a permanent expression of distaste. "If you two decide to join my family for dinner in the future, I do hope to hear about all your success."

She nodded. "Of course. Have a good night, Uchiha-sama."

He left without another word and dessert was eaten blissfully with his lack of presence. Itachi and Mikoto especially, seemed extra absorbed in eating the dango she and Naruto had made.

All in all, It was one of the most awkward dinners she had the pleasure of experiencing.

"Teme," Naruto grunted, crossing his arms. "Your dad is such cold fish."

With Fugaku long gone and Mikoto cleaning up in the kitchen, Sasuke threw himself over the table, tackling the blonde while growling right back at him.

Insults and fists went flying as Sakura lazily looked between the quarreling pair, then back at Itachi, who was still nibbling on the remaining dango, watching with amusement.

A missed kicked bashed the side of the table as Naruto and Sasuke's brawl came too close, jostling Itachi's elbow and making his dango fall.

Sakura swore she saw a flash of red as he glanced at the fallen dumpling, his face murderous. The air suddenly grew cold, and Sasuke immediately tensed mid-fight, slowly looking back with dread.

"Oh no."

.

* * *

.

"Sooo _cute_!"

Shisui squealed delightedly, pulling on the cheeks of a very surprised pink haired child. She was nothing like he had imagined, even when Itachi described the little girl who beat his brother into the dirt.

"Whaa ou doin?" The girl demanded, unable to speak properly with her cheeks being pulled. Her bright green eyes were wide, trying to pull back her face from his offending hands. "Leggo auf me!"

"So _you're_ Haruno Sakura?" he asked with a grin, unrelenting in his grip. "The one who beat my silly cousin over there?"

"Hey!" Sasuke growled, evidently still bitter about the loss.

"But you're so adorable," Shisui retorted, noting how squishy her cheeks were. "Like a little forest fairy. So delicate."

Sakura's eyes narrowed rather dangerously, giving him a small frown. "Imnah a forst fry."

As if to prove her point, Sakura raised her foot, nailing him right in the left shin. Shisui fell over with a surprised grunt, actually having felt his bone _split,_ and his muscles give away. He released her cheeks, clutching his injured shin.

"Owww, _kami_ ," he groaned, feeling the wounded area. The pain was alarmingly sharp, throbbing up his entire leg. Mildly shocked, he glanced back at the girl, watching her rub her red cheeks in irritation.

"Shisui," Itachi's voice cut through his thoughts. "Please stop being dramatic and groveling on the ground. You're attracting attention."

"She kicked me!" he protested. "Really hard!"

His cousin's eyebrow twitched, betraying his amusement at the entire situation. "A seven year old girl in the Academy kicked you. Tragic, isn't it?"

"I feel like my leg is broken," he whined.

A small cough halted his next words, and both he and Itachi turned to the noise. Sakura's cheeks were still red where he had gripped them, arms crossed as she tried to look as intimidating as possible.

"You can't just grab someone's face," she grouched, eyes calculating him. "Besides, I'm not a fairy, and I'm _not_ delicate. Who are you, anyway?"

Before he could answer, Sasuke cut in. "That's my idiot of a cousin, Uchiha Shisui."

"Oi, oi, what's with this blatant disrespect, Sasuke-chan?" he pouted. "I'm still six years older than you."

"Age doesn't mean a thing," he argued.

"Yeah? Say that to Itachi. To his face. Right now."

Sasuke went promptly red, glancing nervously at his brother. "No, I— um, didn't mean it against you, aniki. I swear!"

"Sakura-chan! Sasuke-teme!"

Shisui glanced towards the new voice, watching as the blonde Kyūbi container came running forth, hand waving. He had heard all about Uzumaki Naruto as well. Not only from being in Anbu, but from all the stories Itachi had told him thanks to Sasuke.

"Naruto, you're late!" Sakura berated.

He grumbled. "Sorry, Jiji wouldn't let me go until I told him about my landlady. I think he's going to change her out."

"Good," Sakura said firmly. "She was really mean to you."

"Yeah," he shrugged, trying as usual to act as if it didn't affect him. "Doesn't matter anymore so it's fine. Eh— who are you?"

Naruto's bright blue eyes found his, and Shisui grinned back. "I'm Uchiha Shisui, Naruto-chan, nice to meet you!"

He raised a wary eyebrow. "Um, why're on the ground?"

Suddenly reminded of his predicament, Shisui pushed himself to a sitting position. "Well, I— "

"Sakura kicked him for invading her personal space," Sasuke answered easily.

"I think _invading_ is a bit strong of a word," he argued, getting to his feet. His left leg gave another painful twinge.

"Hn. Well now that Naruto's here, can we get going?" Sasuke glanced between Sakura and Naruto. "I really want to check out that Training Ground."

"Where are you three going?" he asked with curiosity, suddenly realizing that they appeared to be packed for a field mission. They had large backpacks slung over their shoulders, sleeping rolls tucked under the straps, and a bottle of water sticking out from each sleeve. "It's the weekend, shouldn't you kids be doing fun weekend things?"

Sasuke smirked. "Hn. We _will_ be doing fun weekend things."

"Let's go, let's go!" Naruto jumped excitedly, towing the other two by their arms. The three started running down the road, their bags bouncing against their backs.

Sasuke turned, waving at Itachi with a grin. "Aniki, tell Kaa-san I'll be back in two days!"

"Two days?" Shisui repeated, looking at Itachi with confusion.

"Shisui-san, go to the hospital!" Sakura yelled back, throwing one last wave. "Sorry!"

Naruto cheered, pumping his fist into the air. "To the Forest of Death we go!"

Then the three turned the corner of the street, disappearing from view.

Shisui blinked in surprise, and he felt Itachi still next to him. "Did Naruto just say the Forest of Death? Who the hell told them about Training Ground Forty-Four?"

"We should go stop them," Itachi muttered, eyes darkening in obvious displeasure. "Those gates will do nothing to keep those three out."

Nodding, he leapt after his cousin— and immediately crumpled to the ground.

Itachi stopped a few paces ahead, looking back with a frown. "You can't be serious," he said softly.

"It was chakra," Shisui breathed, realization dawning on him. "I thought I felt something else to the kick. Wow... that's actually really impressive."

He hurriedly pulled his pant leg up, unwrapping the bandages that covered his left ankle. An ugly bruise was quickly forming, unnaturally running around his shin— even the back of his calf where Sakura hadn't touched was just as bruised.

"She didn't injure me with her kick," he muttered, mouth slightly agape. "That little fairy _cut me_ with her chakra. Through my skin. Have you ever seen something like that, Itachi?"

Itachi blinked once in silence, indicating his lack of knowledge. "How bad is it?"

He shrugged. "To be honest, it feels like she snapped my muscles apart. I can't really feel my toes. Some kekkei genkai of hers?"

"I don't presume so," Itachi shook his head, eyes contemplative.

Shisui whistled, impressed beyond words. "You told me she was good, but you didn't say she was like you!"

"Like me?"

"A blooming smart-ass," he answered, grinning. "She reminds me of you, you know."

Itachi didn't seem to appreciate the comparison. "Hardly."

"I think those three will be okay," he chuckled, rolling his pants back down. "An Uchiha, the Kyūbi Jinchūriki, and a mini-you."

Itachi narrowed his eyes. "You just don't want to hobble to the hospital by yourself."

"Aw, come on, Itachi! Don't leave poor me here!"

Releasing a quiet huff, Itachi pulled his arm over his shoulder, allowing Shisui to put the majority of his weight on his good leg. With a mighty jump, Itachi leapt onto the closest roof, heading towards the hospital.

"I hope today was a lesson well learned," Itachi noted dryly.

Brilliant green eyes flashed past his memory, her gaze looking far more intelligent than they seemed.

"Nah," Shisui waved a hand. "I'll still do it again— but next time, I'll be faster."

Itachi sighed.

.

* * *

.

The air was cool on the borders of Iwa, gently caressing her exposed arms and slipping into the cracks of her white Anbu mask.

Five feet away from her, a body groaned into the dirt, his long blonde hair matted and loose.

She had been tracking this particular shinobi since Orochimaru attacked Itachi and Shisui, as she knew it was only a matter of time before Akatsuki made moves to replace the Sannin.

All she had to do was follow the grand explosions.

"Who the hell are you, yeah?" He grunted, glaring and panting from where he was crushed into the earth.

"Well, if you had just let me ask some questions before you tried to blow me up, this wouldn't be happening," she mused, crouching so that they were nearly at eye level.

"You insulted my art, yeah!" He bellowed, pouting like a child.

Sakura cocked her head, trying to remember if she ever did such a thing. "I was talking about your terrorist bombing habits, Deidara, not arguing about the fleetingness of art."

"Hn. What does Konoha Anbu want with me anyway?" He grouched, wincing as he jostled his numerous broken ribs. "I haven't done anything to them, yeah!"

She took a moment to study him, noting his fierce expression that was still lined with baby fat, and bright blue eyes that reminded her strikingly of Naruto. He was supposedly four years older than her, which made him fourteen now.

Barely out of childhood, and already a Missing-nin.

"I'm not here on behalf of Konoha," she replied at last. "I'm here on my own accord actually. I just wanted to chat with you."

"Bullshit, yeah," he scowled. "Did Iwa send you after me?"

She raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Are Konoha and Iwa even on good terms to borrow shinobi from each other?"

He hissed, muttering 'probably no' under his breath. "You can blame your Yondaime for that, yeah."

Sakura knew the exact mission he was referring to. The Kannabi Bridge destruction during the Third Shinobi World War, where on one side, Obito was lost to the world, and on the other, Namikaze Minato single handedly defeated a thousand Iwa-nin.

Things were understandably never the same after that.

In fact, it was thanks to the Hiraishin that Sakura was able to outmaneuver Deidara to victory. She was probably the worst match for his explosive kekkei genkai.

"No one sent me," she reassured. "And I'm not here to kill you if you hadn't noticed."

He scoffed. "Then what'd ya want, yeah? You going to hire me?"

"Actually, that's not a bad idea," she muttered in thought, seriously considering the possibility. "Well I wanted to ask you something first. Have you heard of the Akatsuki?"

He glared at her for another minute before he seemed to concede that she was going to get her answers one way or another.

"No. What kind of dumbass name is that—Ow!"

She flicked his forehead, channeling in the barest of chakra so he felt her annoyance vibrate through his skull. "You have quite a mouth, don't you—

"I have three, actually— Ow! Stop _flicking_ me!"

She rolled her eyes. He was much more childish than she remembered. "Then stop being an idiot and listen. Akatsuki is an organization made up of missing-nin, with the goal of world domination through extracting bijū. In fact, I believe they'd be out to recruit you sometime soon."

"Like I care," he snapped. "My art is my purpose, there's no way I'm going to join some ragtag group of idiots, yeah."

"Do you think they'd give you a choice?"

"Come all they want, I'll blow them to pieces!" He said defiantly.

She said nothing in return, choosing to look blatantly at his undignified position on the dirt.

"You don't have to look at me like that, yeah! You caught me off guard with that stupid jutsu, you hear? I'll blow you up for sure!"

Rubbing the back of her neck, she sighed. "Listen, Deidara. Why don't we strike up a compromise?"

"I don't work with _anyone_ , much less enemy-Anbu, yeah."

"Do you think that I'm your enemy?" She questioned. He certainly had no idea what was to come. "Because let's face it, I'd have killed you about an hour ago. I want to help you."

Sakura made the agreement with herself that she wanted to save lives first and foremost. And while Deidara was a problem, he would be less so if he didn't get recruited into Akatsuki.

"I don't need help with anything, yeah."

Reaching into her hip bag, Sakura pulled out a thin card, half the length of her palm, and put it in front of his face. "Here."

He stared at it suspiciously, blue eyes narrowing. "What is it, yeah?"

"It's a calling card," she supplied, having given this explanation many times now. "Channel chakra into it and it will summon me. I'm not saying you _have_ to use it, but… if you find yourself cornered by Akatsuki, and you don't quite want to join them… explode the card, and I'll come to help you."

"Why the hell would I believe you about any of this nonsense?" He challenged. "This could all be made up for some sick plan of yours, yeah."

"Why would I have any reason to lie to you?" She shot back. "I simply think that you are much better off not getting involved with an organization I am actively hunting. Unless you'd like to have another enemy."

He went silent, trying to peer at her through the slits of her mask. Finally he seemed to relent. "Fine. But don't think I'm ever going to need you, Anbu. I have my art, and I won't be caught off guard again, yeah."

She surely couldn't force him to use it, and if Sakura had to take responsibility for his life in the end, she would do it.

Smiling, she dropped the card by his face, pressing two fingers against his forehead in order to release the paralyzing jutsu. "Fine by me. Also, go see a medic. I heard there's a nice one on the border of Ishigakure. Not too far off from here."

Before he could move or speak again, Sakura turned on her heel and disappeared in a white flash.

.

* * *

.

A week after the big reveal of Naruto's fox host, Sakura thought he was taking the whole thing rather steadily.

Kakashi already knew and treated Naruto the same. Sasuke seemed to realize that the knowledge made no difference anyway, and Naruto took it all in stride. He had been contemplative for a day or so, then bounced right back into his cheery, too-bright demeanor.

He even complained about the injustice of it all, realizing that the Kyūbi was basically living in his body for free without even paying rent. He was now officially dubbed the worst roommate ever.

"Hey, Naruto."

"Mnh?" He mumbled, having partially fallen asleep on the grass.

She gave him a look. "I was thinking about your roommate, and well… what exactly is his name?"

Naruto blinked in confusion and Sasuke sat up, his interest perked.

"Name?" Naruto repeated, face scrunching. "Wouldn't it just be Kyūbi?"

She shook her head, trying to hook Naruto's curiosity. If she could get him connected with Kurama faster, he would be an immense power boost and a steadfast ally.

"You heard Hokage-sama last week. Kyūbi is just a reference to his status, like how 'shinobi' is to us. That isn't our name though."

"Hn. Sakura's right," said Sasuke, looking thoughtful. "He even said all the tailed beasts are different, like they have their own personalities. Surely they have names."

Naruto scratched his head. "I mean… does it matter?"

Sakura fought the urge to bonk his head. "Of course it matters, Naruto! He's sealed into you so technically his chakra is also yours to use when needed. Wouldn't you want to at least try talking to him?"

"I dunno…" he said warily. "I know Jiji said he can't get out, but he did try to squash Konoha…"

 _Dammit Obito_ , she inwardly sighed.

"Well think about it this way," she said instead. "Let's say you were an extremely powerful shinobi, Naruto. So powerful that no one in the Five Nations can match you—"

Naruto grinned dreamily at the suggestion and Sasuke snorted.

"So strong, in fact, that people start to fear you. They don't know the extent of your power, all they know is that you can move mountains, and crush villages with a single hand seal. Fear turns into paranoia, then to hate. You can't be killed, so the people decide to strip you of your freedom, and seal you away. They won't listen to your protests because they fear your strength. This is the only way to have peace, they say— for years and _years_. After one host dies, you're just moved right over to another, forever trapped, misunderstood, and unacknowledged. How would you feel?"

The training ground had long gone silent, and a serious atmosphere settled in the air. Sasuke frowned and Naruto looked horrified.

"But that's not fair, Sakura-chan!" He argued. "I hadn't done anything wrong! I wasn't attacking Konoha first!"

She drummed her fingers, leaning forward. "Not quite, Naruto. Remember, who was our first Hokage?"

"Senju," Sasuke intervened, eyes widening as he quickly picked up her point. "He first established peace between the nations by offering the tailed beasts. That was how they balanced out power."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Naruto grumbled, not getting the picture.

"Dobe, don't you see it?" Sasuke grabbed his shoulder. "The Kyūbi has been in Konoha for a long time. At least since the Shodai. That means you're not the first sealing host. It was sealed inside someone else during those days, and probably got released on accident or something."

Sakura took her cue. "And again, how would you be feeling after years of containment, only considered a weapon between shinobi?"

Naruto's blue eyes seemed to darken. "I'd be mad I guess. That sounds… lonely."

"I'm not justifying what happened twelve years ago during the attack, but there's a lot we just don't know," Sakura shrugged. "The Kyūbi might have a good reason for his anger though. It's only fair we respect that too."

"I suppose… but how do I even talk to him?" Naruto wondered with a frown.

"I'll help you study your seal," Sakura declared simply, patting his head. Jiraiya had already explained the ins and outs of it, but analyzing it up close would do wonders. "Would you trust me with that?"

He grinned, melting under her hand. "Of course, Sakura-chan!"

Sasuke was still quiet, gaze lost in thought. "Why Naruto, though? Sealing a beast doesn't seem like an easy decision to make, so why did the Yondaime choose Naruto… on the day of his birth no less? Did they even consult his parents?"

"I dunno," Naruto shrugged. "Jiji said they died in the Kyūbi attack too."

"No," Sasuke muttered, eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Something doesn't seem right about this. Everyone refers to the incident as the Kyūbi _attack_ , meaning it was unprepared for, not some sort of planned sealing event."

Sakura glanced at him under the hood of her eyelashes, not responding. Sasuke at this age was much smarter than she remembered.

"Then what?" The blonde grumbled.

"I… " Sasuke trailed off, in deep thought. "I think whoever your parents were, they were very close to the Hokage, Naruto. There's no way that children would be chosen at _random_ to house a tailed beast— that just wouldn't make sense. Like Sakura said, the Kyūbi has been around Konoha since the Shodai, meaning that it probably went through a couple other hosts before the _attack_ , where it was released unexpectedly, and they had to find another host right away. The Yondaime must have been familiar with your parents or your history somehow, and thus, chose you."

Sakura bit her lip hard, trying not to speak. She knew he would meet his parents someday, but that moment just wasn't now.

"It's possible," she said softly. "It could also explain why the Hokage refuses to diverge any information about them to you or the public. He's trying to protect you still."

"Hn. Whoever your parents were, they must have had a lot of enemies out there," Sasuke deduced, plopping his chin against his palm.

Naruto grumbled ever so slightly, a frown of determination crossing his face. "I'll show Jiji how strong I am for sure… I won't need his protecting soon enough."

Sakura turned on him, grinning. "And you know what the first step is to discovering the Kyūbi?"

"What?" He asked warily, eyeing her grin.

"Meditating."

Naruto groaned. " _Noooooo_!"

.

* * *

.

"Temari! Kankuro!"

Both shinobi turned in surprise as Sakura came running forth, a smile on her face. The early morning streets were bustling with life and activity, it was almost strange to see the two wander about freely.

They were cataloging Konoha for the invasion, no doubt.

"Do you remember me?" She asked breathlessly, stopping before the two. "It's me, Sakura."

While she had spent most of her time with Gaara during her stay in Suna, she had played with the elder two siblings a handful of times as well, getting to know their family dynamic— or lack thereof.

There was an obvious flash of recognition through their faces, and Temari gave her a small smile.

"It's been about six years, hasn't it?" she said in greeting. Kankuro gave her a nod. "I see you've been well."

"Where's Gaara?" Sakura asked cheerily, looking around for distinct red hair. "It's been so long since I've seen him too. My teammates told me you all ran into each other!"

She didn't miss the noticeable flinch both siblings gave, darting their eyes around in fear before looking at her with something akin to guilt.

"Um," Kankuro muttered, watching her warily. "Gaara stayed back at our hotel. He... well, didn't your teammates say anything yesterday? The blonde doofus and the broody-looking one, right?"

She chuckled at his description. "Say anything about what? Gaara?"

Sakura knew she was baiting them, but she wanted to hear the words from their own mouths.

At last, Temari quietly sighed, rubbing at her eyes. "Look, about Gaara... It's been years since he's been like what you remember. He's changed a lot. You know how he was."

She frowned. "A little shy and scared of people?"

"No," she momentarily scrunched her eyes shut, looking defeated. "I mean, he's become very... closed off. Angry. Wanting to fight all the time. I really wouldn't recommend searching for him. In fact, I'd advise you to steer clear of him entirely."

 _He'd kill you_ , was written all over her expression, but remained unsaid.

"I see," she said slowly, taking in her words. "Why the sudden change? I remember you three were fairly close. What happened?"

After a great pause, Temari answered once more. "Let's just say he and our father had a rather terrible fight. He hasn't been the same since."

Sakura nodded in understanding. "I'm sorry to hear that. I was looking forward to seeing him again."

"Just be careful, all right? Steer clear if you see him and try not to poke too much into his actions," Temari remarked, another flash a guilt running through her eyes. "We'll see you at the exams."

"Don't go easy on me if we meet in battle!" She called, letting them go. "I'll show you how much I've grown with my team!"

"Same to you, Sakura."

With that, the two Suna siblings continued down the streets, not once looking back.

Sakura watched them go with a frown, having a general idea of how they were feeling. She couldn't imagine the pressure of being a Genin in foreign village, knowing you were going to ambush it within a month's time.

Releasing a sigh, Sakura turned and left the central market. The day was still bright and there was much to do in preparation.

.

* * *

.

Five kunai thudded against the practice target, sinking into every vital area that would leave the victim bleeding to death.

Tenten smiled at her success, glancing between her two male teammates with a sense of confidence. They were definitely a strong team, and likely one of the best Genins.

"So did you guys hear?" Lee turned to them excitedly. "For the first time in five years, there are going to be rookies in this Chūnin Exam."

Tenten nodded, throwing a set of senbon. "Sakura told me yesterday. All the rookie teams were nominated for the exams."

Ever since their meeting last year, Tenten had continued to meet with Sakura, occasionally trading gossip and helping out with each other's training. As much as she liked her team, it was always a blessed and productive time away when she met with the fellow kunoichi.

"Of course Sakura-san would be nominated!" Lee pumped his fist, eyes blazing. "She is truly the manifestation of youth!"

"Can't say the same for the other teams," Neji inputted, resting against the tree. "You have to feel sorry for them."

Tenten perked at the well covered compliment, noting that Neji hadn't refuted Lee's claims. Ever since their fight, she had been wary of bringing Sakura's name into the conversation, but Neji had been surprisingly relaxed.

"So what do you think of our chances?" She asked, twirling a kunai. "Just within the Konoha teams in this instance."

Neji silently contemplated as Lee yelled proclamations of their success.

"We have the upper hand in experience and teamwork compared to the rookies," Neji replied, pausing again as he thought. "From what I've gathered, there's eight other Konoha teams that have been in the field longer, but the they're nothing too noteworthy."

Tenten nodded. "I think we've got this exam in the bag, especially you, Neji."

He gave a slight frown at the comment. "I suspect it'll be Kakashi's team that will need closer attention. Although, I've heard the Uchiha's hardly comparable to his elder brother's genius and skill, and the blonde one just seems to be a powerhouse of chakra— no finesse."

"And Sakura?"

There was a long stretch of silence before he muttered out a reply. "A problem."

Lee finally settled, interested in the conversation. "You think what Gai-sensei said is true? About her learning taijutsu just from seeing him train a few mornings?"

"Who knows," Neji grumbled. "It was apparently the Uchiha clan head that relayed that info. Credibility can't be accounted for."

The unspoken question was clear. They would find out who topped over the other when they met in battle.

From the way Neji's eyes seemed to gleam, he was more than ready for a rematch.

Tenten hummed. "Prodigies sure are scary."

.

* * *

.

If there was one thing that threw Sakura's entire plan for the future into unsteady waters, it was saving the Uchiha clan.

Itachi and Obito had persisted marvelously with her, trying to predict every outcome and possibly of the consequences from saving the clan.

But that's all they were — possibilities.

The Uchiha clan had around a hundred and fifty members in total. Many were elderly, those retired from active service, and those who never fulfilled the potential of their famed pinwheel eyes. Only about thirty were currently active shinobi.

And it was within that thirty that Sakura found her miscalculation.

Standing in the crowded hallway filled with hopeful Genin trying to get into the Chūnin exam room, Sakura spotted a familiar face, that was actually not someone she knew at all.

"Sasuke," she called, gently grabbing his shoulder and gesturing to the other side of the hall. "Who's that?"

A boy with pitch black hair and matching eyes stood with his two teammates, his pale skin and angular features undoubtedly marking him a member of Sasuke's clan.

"That's Ichirō," he supplied, looking uncharacteristically bitter. "He graduated two years ahead of us, but hadn't gotten the chance to partake in the Chūnin Exams until now, I suppose."

Naruto looked in their direction. "Another one of your weird cousins, teme?"

Sasuke scoffed. "Uchiha he may be, but we're not closely related. I've only seen him a handful of times in the old compound and he moved out a while back when his parents died."

"Why's that?" She inquired softly, cocking her head.

He shrugged. "He was never really around. It was fine by me though; Ichirō's from the branch family so he was always trying to prove himself and stick up to my father. It was rather annoying."

"Cold fishes like always," Naruto shook his head. "Your entire clan—"

"Finish that sentence dobe, I dare you."

They glared fiercely at each other and Sakura moved in to separate them. "Be nice you two. Besides, there's no one that can match the weirdness of Shisui."

"Truth," both boys muttered in agreement.

Sakura let her gaze wander back to Ichirō as Naruto and Sasuke bantered about, her sharp mind analyzing the current situation and spinning with alternative actions.

The boy was an unexpected wedge into her plans, which surprised her. Itachi and Obito had both confirmed that no other Uchiha would participate in the exams as they were all either past the Chūnin rank, or not yet Genin.

So there was something Sakura had done in her last seven years that triggered Ichirō's sudden appearance.

It was then that her memory suddenly clicked, and she recalled his name with absolute clarity.

Uchiha Ichirō — a friend of Sai's in the Shinobi Restoration Program.

Root.

Now it all made sense. Danzō would have wanted a second pair of loyal eyes within the clan, and likely took Ichirō right after his parents' passing or even before. That was why Sasuke rarely saw him in the compound even though they were close in age. He was a boy of the branch family who was desperate to prove himself and Danzō took full advantage of that.

In the past timeline, Itachi or Obito must have killed him during the massacre, not knowing he was secretly training into Root Anbu. He was likely regarded to be a part of the other twenty Uchiha members, who never lived up to their potential to become active shinobi.

And now that Sakura suddenly had two Uchiha boys in the exam, her plan was flipping upside down.

Orochimaru — who had definitely taken over being Kazekage within the last few months — was sure to come and try _something._ She knew he had temporarily halted his efforts in gaining an Uchiha body without his cursed seals, especially after failing to take Itachi. Since the seals were mixed with his senjutsu chakra, it made the soul transfer critically easier, and coerced the victim come to him for power, corroding their minds and ultimately falling into insanity.

Something Sasuke wasn't particularly interested in this time around.

If Orochimaru was going to attack, it was going to be against the vulnerable and the suppressed, someone more like Ichirō.

His eyes suddenly shot left to meet hers, and Sakura quickly gave him a warm smile and a wave. He frowned slightly in response, before slowly raising a hand and robotically waving back in clear confusion.

She would have to look out for him as well. Sakura was well aware that given the right circumstances, _anyone_ could end up like the past-Sasuke.

There was a sudden crash and an outraged cry near the doors, and Sakura peeked over Naruto's shoulder to try and see the commotion. Lee had been thrown on the floor and Tenten was valiantly defending her fallen teammate against the guards. With a backhand to the cheek, she also fell back.

"Idiots," Sasuke muttered. "Doesn't anyone see the genjutsu?"

"I'm sure they do," she said calmly. "But underestimation is also a strength in these sort of exams."

" _Che,_ " Sasuke grunted, obviously not wanting to blend in. "Well _we're_ going in."

Rolling her eyes at his dramatics, Sakura walked over to Tenten instead, knowing Naruto and Sasuke had it under control.

"Sakura!" She blinked in surprise, then smiled sheepishly. "I see you made it."

She crouched down, pressing a hand against Tenten's red cheek, and soothing the bruise away. "Was the underestimation tactic really worth the strike?"

They glanced at the new commotion by the door, noting Lee's interference.

Tenten sighed. "Well now that Lee's thrown it all out the window, no, it wasn't worth it."

She snickered, pulling Tenten up to her feet with a firm tug. Neji soon came stalking out of the shadows with a look of exasperation at his green-suited teammate. He quickly gave her a nod, and continued on to Lee.

"I knew the valiant Sakura-san was to come!" Lee's voice boomed through the hall towards her. "I am now a changed man, so please go out with me and I will definitely protect you until — _Oof!"_

Naruto's foot and Sasuke's elbow went flying, momentarily shutting Lee off course before he bounded away.

"Hey, hey, Thick-brows! No way we letting you take Sakura-chan!" Naruto bellowed. "She's _our_ teammate!"

"Hn."

A bandaged hand shot out, grabbing Lee's collar and dragging him back. "Cut it out, Lee. Let's get inside."

Lee looked like he was about to argue with Neji before resigning. "Very well. A good shinobi knows when to retreat."

Sakura sent him a wave. "See you guys inside!"

The hall began to thin out as Genin made their way up to the third floor, and she glanced between her two boys, all exchanging a similar grin. "Shall we?"

Naruto cheered. "Let's crush this exam, 'ttebayo!"

…

Thirty minutes later, Sakura watched Naruto's stiff shoulders from five rows back, able to _feel_ his frustration with the written exam.

She nearly sighed as she sat in between two Suna shinobi, pencil in hand. The tension in the room was thick, and seven people had already been caught cheating.

Her eyes quickly trailed over to the other side of the room where a certain grey-haired shinobi sat, blazing through the test.

Kabuto.

Orochimaru wouldn't come into the picture until he had murdered the group of grass-nin, but Kabuto had already wormed his way into Naruto's pure heart, deceiving the entire Rookie Nine.

Her hand was itching to make a move—anything to get him out of the game before the second part began, but her arms were tied. Sasuke and Naruto's safety was her priority in the forest, and she couldn't spread herself too thin by trying to fight them both.

She stared at her blank test, already having decided that it was a waste of time to even complete it. She knew the last question was the only one that mattered, and it gave one less person that others could copy off of.

The lack of mind transfer from Ino also indicated that she noticed Sakura hadn't moved her pencil at all.

Sighing softly as Ibiki began to explain the tenth question, Sakura allowed her thoughts to wander, going through all the different paths she could take, and how to get her team in and out the way they went in.

Ichirō's appearance posed a problem that she hadn't expected. All her plans revolved around the fact that Orochimaru was the one to come to _them_. If he didn't, Sakura couldn't exactly abandon her teammates to try and find him. Even if she did, trying to knock out Ichirō's team first and fighting the snake sannin would raise a lot of questions after they woke up.

Inwardly grumbling, Sakura sent a longing look at the back of Shikamaru's head, wishing he was there to plot with her.

A clone wasn't good enough to protect Naruto and Sasuke in her absence in case they ran into formidable shinobi, nor would it do her any good to send one to Orochimaru.

She was nearly certain the Sannin would go after Ichirō' team. If his time in Root Anbu was anything to go by, Sakura was positive Danzō had gotten the Sharingan to appear long ago, compared to Sasuke who still hadn't activated them. Ichirō was also older and theoretically stronger.

Inwardly sighing, Sakura pressed her head into the desk. She would have to wait it out. While sealing him away was preferable, making sure Naruto and Sasuke made it through alive was her first and foremost goal.

Then there was always the invasion to consider. She could finish him then once in for all.

When the final question had been set and every remaining team in the room passed, Mitarashi Anko came crashing through the window, ready to take them to the second exam.

Clenching her fist, Sakura stood with the rest of her team.

So it begins.

.

* * *

.

"Sakura, you hold onto the scroll," Sasuke urged, handing her the heaven scroll.

She stilled, not having expected that. "Why me?"

"Between Naruto and I, you're the strongest at taijutsu, so if the enemy-nin got close enough to take our scroll, you'd have the best chance of fighting them off," Sasuke explained. "Besides, no one would expect for you to hold onto it."

"I'll take that as a compliment," she muttered, tucking the heaven scroll into her hip bag.

Sasuke had a fair point though. Behind the lean muscle and boyishly cut hair, Sakura looked liked a weak, fairly delicate member of team seven.

After separating to their respective gates, Sakura craned her neck, observing the tall metal fence.

"Well, this place sure has some good memories," she smiled. "It's been awhile since we camped here though."

Sasuke smirked. "Yeah, because last time Naruto couldn't keep his mouth shut and ended up attracting a horde of giant tigers."

"That was you, teme! Your katon basically gave the entire forest our location!"

He raised a brow. "Yeah, and who was the one who screamed back at them, ' _come at me, cretins_!', huh?"

Naruto crossed his arms in defiance. "I have no regrets. They stepped on my ramen cup."

"Come on, the exam is about to start," she warned.

Sure enough, a shrill _bang_ echoed through the forest and Sakura knew it was time.

"Let's go!" Naruto shouted, and all three of them bounded into the trees.

"So what's the plan, Sakura?"

"I'm willing to bet we know this forest better than any of the other teams," she supplied, pushing off a branch. "So let's stick close to the river and head straight towards the tower. Any teams we meet along the way can be lured into our traps. Full out confrontation is dangerous with unknown shinobi. We observe first, then attack."

"Hn."

"You got it, Sakura-chan! I'll make the biggest trap Konoha's ever seen!"

They traveled for the next hour, exchanging tactics and bouncing off trees, when she felt unfamiliar chakra signatures come into range. They were all well hidden, but growing stronger— definitely coming for her team.

Before she could warn of their arrival, Naruto suddenly stopped on his branch, looking sheepish.

"Sakura-chan… There's a problem."

"What?"

"I really have to pee."

Sasuke groaned and she smacked her forehead, shooing him on with a hand. "Go then! And be careful, okay?"

Naruto disappeared into the trees just as the cluster of unknown chakra grew close.

"Foreign shinobi coming from the west," she announced quietly.

Sasuke fingered his kunai holster. "How far?"

"Close," she muttered, concentrating on them. There was a long pause of silence as she listened, feeling a spike of chakra in the distance. She sharpened her gaze, reaching for a kunai.

Sasuke did the same. "Hn."

After another quiet moment, Naruto walked back into view, rustling through the bushes. "Aah! I feel so much better!" he sighed, rubbing the back of his head.

The second she spotted his holster on the wrong leg, Sakura threw her kunai and Sasuke did the same. One sunk into Naruto's forearm, and other caught the edge of his shoulder. The henge disappeared in a cloud of smoke, leaving behind a thoroughly surprised Ame shinobi.

"How did you know?" he hissed, yanking the metal out.

"Sasuke! Find Naruto!" she yelled, charging the masked shinobi. Sasuke leapt away, muttering curses under his breath about stupid blondes.

"Are you the one with the scroll?" the Ame-nin snarled.

"Maybe I am," she replied coyly.

"It's your unlucky day then! I'll have to kill you!"

He charged her wildly, and Sakura easily danced around his swipes, assessing his form.

She had remembered this particular shinobi to be intimidating. Sasuke fought him the first time around while Sakura had been so scared to even help — she couldn't remember much other than the fact that he got away.

Analysis over, she flickered behind him with a chakra laced fist, knuckles slamming into the base of his spine before he could react. His body easily snapped under the pressure and cracked into the earth, upturning the ground.

"Not likely," she muttered, pulling back her fist. She rummaged through his broken body, picking his spare weapons and explosive tags. They were mediocre to the ones she custom wrote for her team, but more was always better.

Deep inside his leg pocket was a Heaven scroll, and Sakura snatched it from his body— not the one they needed but useful nonetheless.

"Sakura! I found the idiot!"

She twirled around finding both boys run into the scene. "No other teammates of his?"

"They got away."

Naruto shook his head. "Man, that was so low! Catching me when I was taking a piss! Who _does_ that?"

"Shinobi," Sasuke answered, hitting the blonde's forehead. "You shouldn't have let your guard down."

"Where is he? I'll totally take him on!"

Sakura lifted the scroll. "No need, Naruto. I already took revenge for you and found ourselves a lovely gift."

Their eyes lit up. "Awesome, Sakura-chan! Can we head to the tower now?"

"That's a heaven scroll, dobe, we need an earth one."

She nodded, tossing the extra scroll. "Here, Sasuke, you take this one."

He caught it, pocketing it in his waist as Naruto grumbled. "What about me, Sakura-chan!"

"You can hold the earth scroll when we find one," she amended softly.

"Besides, I think our scroll would have already been lost seeing as I found you all nicely tied up and gagged five minutes ago," Sasuke countered.

"I was preoccupied!" Naruto protested, pouting.

She pat his head. "We know, Naruto. Now come on, let's get going."

…

After twenty more minutes of travel, gossiping about other teams, and dodging venomous leeches, Sakura felt another disturbance in the air.

It was colder and heavier this time, and she knew for certain who it belonged to.

And now who he was after.

She refused to willingly bring her team to face Orochimaru just for the chance that she could seal him, so it meant that he was off the grid for now. And even if Sakura went back after they reached the tower, he would have been long gone.

There was no plausible way of helping Ichirō's team without dragging Sasuke and Naruto into it.

She clenched her fist at the thought. It was a heartbreaking decision, but one she had to make. She had once put Konoha's safety over the Uchiha clan when she saved Shisui, and now she had to do the same, putting Sasuke's life over Ichirō's.

She swallowed bitterly, feeling sick.

There was a rustle in the trees and all three of them tensed, attention snapping towards the noise. A kunai shot from the bushes, and Sasuke swung out with his own, deflecting the weapon.

"He's fast," a deep voice spoke. "Better than the other Uchiha you think?"

Two shinobi came melting out of the shadows and Sakura immediately felt that these were not normal Genin. The metal on their foreheads marked them as grass-nin, but she knew they were anything but. One was on the smaller side with a mask over the lower half of his face and neck, and the other was broad, towering over them with beady yellow eyes.

Orochimaru's shinobi. There were two with him on his stolen team, and had probably been ordered to stay out of his work.

They were very close then.

"Who are you guys, huh?" Naruto yelled, bracing himself. "Attacking us like that!"

"We should not interfere," the other shinobi muttered, looking spitefully at them. "If that one fails, he'll come for this little Uchiha."

"Hey," Sasuke called, voice dripping in annoyance. "I don't know why you're talking about me, but I'm not going to stand here and let you guys off!"

He ran ahead with a cry and Sakura gave one look at Naruto before the two of them bolted on after him.

" _Kage Bunshin no jutsu_!" Six more Narutos appeared in a cloud of smoke, running to tackle the smaller grass-bin.

She met eyes with Sasuke in a well practiced signal, and pooled chakra in her mouth. Sakura lifted a hand seal and blew, shooting out a thick stream of oil.

The entire right side of the forest blew up in Sasuke's flames, but the shinobi were quick to dodge.

"Your mouth will be your ruin," the second nin hissed at the other, looking thoroughly irritated at the sudden fight. He leapt away, sliding through Naruto's bunshins with ease.

"We'll just kill them then," the first growled back. "They are not worth Orochimaru-sama's attention."

Sakura tensed at the name, dancing under a sailing fist.

They were fast, and definitely not normal Genin level. The first shinobi matched her sealed speed shoulder to shoulder, clearly the more nimble of the two. They were Chūnin if not almost Jōnin level.

Sakura swerved and strategically moved around her own teammates, going through many of the group attack formations that they had practiced. A chakra blade nicked the larger nin's leg, and he momentarily staggered. The fact that these two were able to hold under their formation showcased enough skill.

"Eat my foot, you bastard!"

There was a clang of kunai and a slap of fabric, and Naruto's leg was caught and thrown back, knocking him down.

The ground suddenly softened and Sakura's heel sank into the dirt like quicksand, as rings of vibrations ran through the earth.

"Dobe, look out!"

The jutsu caught him the worst, and Naruto was stuck knee deep into the dirt, unable to move.

The masked nin rapidly flipped through hand seals. " _Fūton: Kazekiri no jutsu_!"

Wind chakra whipped through the air, shredding through anything it touched and headed straight towards Naruto's prone form. Sakura turned to run back, but the larger shinobi cut across her path, blocking her.

They were isolating him, trying to take them out one at a time.

Before she could summon a wall of earth to protect Naruto, Sasuke blurred in front of the wind blades, eyes gleaming with defiance.

There was a flash of red as he raised a seal to his mouth. " _Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu_!"

Fire and wind collided in a giant hiss of heat, blocking the majority of her vision.

There was a cry of pain as _something_ battered Naruto and Sasuke, but she couldn't see.

Feeling a rush of anger, Sakura ran lightning down her arm and slammed her fist into the ground with all her strength.

The earth groaned and split under the pressure, breaking outwards and overpowering the quicksand effect. She shot out of the dirt, rushing towards the larger man with an open palm.

Unbalanced from her attack, he staggered right into her hand, and his chest ruptured open in a shower of blood and bones.

"Kinta!" His partner yelled, wide eyes turning to her. "You little bitch!"

"Don't you look away!" Sasuke yelled, flying out of the smoke. His stomach was covered in blood and deep cuts adorned his arms.

Dozens of wire suddenly materialized from the trees, catching the masked nin by surprise and holding him in place. Naruto leaped from the broken ground, throwing two kunai at his back, and Sasuke tugged at the wires around the grass-nin's jaw, forcing them to meet eyes. Blood red orbs flared in response, tomoe spinning in a weave for genjutsu.

" _Die_ ," he spat, forcing the shinobi go rigid under his gaze.

Naruto's kunai sank into the man's unprotected back, protruding out the front of his chest and neck.

With a slow groan, he fell, body limply hanging against the wires.

Blinking away the adrenaline, Sakura ran towards them, cataloguing their injuries. Sasuke looked to be the worst, while Naruto had minor cuts along his waist, and burns on his hands. They were both breathing hard, looking at the man they had just ended the life of.

It was then she realized that they had just made their first kill together. Of course, Sakura couldn't coddle them forever, but she hadn't meant it to be this early. They were only twelve.

"Teme," Naruto pointed at Sasuke's face with shock. "Your eyes!"

"I know," he replied tiredly, but a sense of pride still remained. He had finally gotten his Sharingan, and to Sakura's eternal gratitude, it was from a strong positive feeling.

The will to protect his teammate.

She stopped near the grass-nin's body, looking between both boys. "You idiots, look at yourselves! You're bleeding all over the forest."

"Sakura, they — this shinobi — he wasn't normal," Sasuke muttered seriously. "That level of fūton is comparable to what Itachi-nii can produce. His killing intent was real too. I _had_ to do it."

She softened her gaze, biting the inside of her cheek and sighed. "I'm just glad you two are okay. Here, let me see your injuries."

They limped over to her, Naruto more so than Sasuke, and fell into the dirt. Sakura crouched in front of them, hands humming green.

The stronger wind had likely blasted through the fireball, leaving behind the large gash on Sasuke's stomach. Naruto's ankle was broken from his forced escape of the sinking dirt, but Sakura knew Kurama could have it taken care of in a few days.

"What the heck happened to your guy, Sakura-chan?!"

She glanced back at the man she had killed, noting that his body was slumped against a tree, organs and blood splashed ten feet out from where he died.

"Explosive chakra attack", she murmured, hoping they wouldn't probe further. "And Sasuke, switch off that Sharingan. It'll start draining you otherwise."

He blinked, eyes returning to black.

"That guy… he said 'Orochimaru'," Sasuke said quietly. "And something about going after the Uchiha."

Naruto scratched his head. "Why does that name sound familiar… another cousin?"

"Konoha's Sannin," Sasuke corrected. "Don't you remember _anything_ Iruka said about the Third Shinobi War?"

"We're not talking about a loyal Konoha-nin, however," she continued, keeping focused on Sasuke's injury. "He defected long ago for unknown reasons, which means one important thing: he's an unwanted enemy."

"So what does he want with the Uchiha?" Naruto questioned.

"That's what we don't know," Sasuke grumbled, wincing as she cleaned out the dirt.

She bandaged Sasuke's stomach, resolute on taking a look at Naruto as well. "You're cleared from anything critical but I want to get to a safer location before fixing it all. Our fight must have attracted unwanted attention."

"Thanks, Sakura," he muttered absentmindedly, rubbing his sore abdomen. He slowly got to his feet, deciding to search their fallen enemies for anything useful.

She turned to Naruto, bracing his ankle with a makeshift cast and soothing the area with chakra. It was a rough break, and from the way his face scrunched with every movement, it was causing him pain. Reaching deeper in the nerves, Sakura forced the pathways to close with her chakra, numbing the area.

"How does it feel?" She probed.

He grinned good-naturedly. "Great, Sakura-chan! I actually can't feel a thing!"

She ruffled the dirt from his hair. "Okay, I'll carry you back so take it easy. I know your roommate tends to heal you faster but it doesn't mean you have to aggravate your injuries."

He didn't protest as she pulled his arms around her shoulders, settling him against her back. After adjusting him, Sakura heard a muffled gasp from Sasuke, and turned to see him stare in disgust at the shinobi he had killed.

"Sasuke, what's wrong?"

"His face," he choked slightly, looking sick. "It's melting off."

Sure enough, the skin was sagging away, revealing the true face of Orochimaru's subordinate. Sakura gave a quick glance to the man she had taken down to find a similar situation.

"Orochimaru's work no doubt," she remarked darkly. "They must have killed the real grass-nin and stole their identity."

Before either could respond, a scream filled the dead silence of the forest, sending shivers down her spine. It was not of scream of surprise or even terror, but one of pure agony, hoarse and ear-shattering, as if they were being tortured. A scream she heard one too many times before.

Sasuke whipped his face around like he had been hit, eyes wide. "...Ichirō."

A dozen different scenarios ran through her mind as Sakura tried to process the new circumstance, glancing between the sudden screaming and Sasuke's shocked expression.

"Sasuke, wait," she called, noting his tense form, as if he was able to jump away any second. "If it's really Orochimaru out there, it'll be too dangerous. You can't go — especially not in that condition."

His face tore with conflict, and Sakura realized that there was a lot more to Sasuke and Ichirō's friendship then he spoke about. "I… I can't leave him behind. And if Orochimaru is really going after the Uchihas, he'll come for me anyway."

"Yeah we'll kick the stupid Sannin into the dirt," Naruto declared into her ear.

"Naruto you shouldn't even be _talking_ about fighting on that foot, much less with a Sannin!"

Another pitch in the screams was all Sasuke needed to make his decision. He looked to her, desperate. "Sakura, please. I can't do it alone."

His pleading stilled her, not having heard such vulnerability in a while. The last time she had seen such an expression was when Itachi was severely injured.

She could only hope the Anbu came quickly now.

At last, she resigned with a firm nod and he shot off towards the noise like a bullet.

Cycling chakra through her legs, Sakura took off from the ground, Naruto's weight hardly holding her down.

Orochimaru's presence had been subdued and momentarily forgotten by their own battle, but feeling was unmistakable now. They must have moved closer during the fight.

The screaming grew louder as the three of them stopped by a clearing. A large part of the forest had been blasted apart by jutsus and nearly all the trees had been knocked over. In the center of the pit, Ichirō was in a fetal position screaming and clutching at his neck. Two bodies that indicated his teammates lied motionless to the side. Blood pooled around them, and Sakura didn't have to feel for a pulse to know that they were close to death.

The less ties his victim had to the village, the better.

Further up ahead, Orochimaru stood on one of the broken trees, his grass-nin disguise having fallen off. Other than a large rip through his shirt, he appeared to be well intact.

Before Sakura could voice her opinion to hide and watch first, Sasuke shot off without delay, running towards his cousin.

"Ichirō!" He yelled over the screams, landing messily beside the elder boy. "Ichirō, it's me, Sasuke!"

Sakura dropped next to them, every muscle of her being on alert.

"Uchiha Sasuke…" Orochimaru said slowly, looking rather surprised. "For you to have come here… the irony is not lost."

"What have you done to him?" He demanded, still trying to shake Ichirō back to reality.

"I merely gave him a gift." A long tongue slithered out mockingly as he looked at the suffering boy with disappointment. "His capability to survive, however, seems to be shrinking. A shame I chose wrong. I cannot give another one so soon."

He was right. Sakura had seen her fair share of curse seal recipients and the way Ichirō's body was reacting was not good. He was shaking uncontrollably, eyes glassy and skin cold, rapidly losing control.

A one in ten success rate.

The only good news was that Orochimaru wouldn't be able to give another Cursed Seal for another full week while his senjutsu chakra restored.

"Sasuke," she said seriously, keeping her eyes trained on the Sannin. "I need you to take Ichirō and get out of here. Naruto, you follow them too. I'll hold him back."

"No way, Sakura-chan! We're not leaving you behind with this creep!"

"Sakura—"

"He's dying!" She stressed angrily, upset that it came to this. She could escape with the two of them, but that left her back wide open to Orochimaru. If she fought while the boys did nothing, Ichirō would likely die anyway. They were never reported to last more than a day. "If you want to save your cousin, then you have to take him and _run_ , Sasuke. Run back and alert the Jōnin."

Orochimaru chuckled as she finished her demand, looking as if he was enjoying himself. "The girl is right, Sasuke-kun. What will you do? Leave Ichirō-kun to die, or leave your teammate to die?"

"I'm not going to die," she retorted.

His expression tore as he glanced back between her and his cousin, and for a moment, he actually looked ready to comply to her request. "I— Sakura — I don't—"

" _Sasuke, NO_!" Naruto cut in, pushing off her back. He stomped over without a care for his broken ankle, eyes alight with fury, and promptly punched Sasuke across the face. "How could you even _think_ about it! Those who abandon their teammates are worse than trash! Sasuke's not a coward who would turn his back on us! If there's an enemy then we'll face it as a team, you hear me, teme?!"

"This isn't easy, Naruto!" He yelled back, clutching his face. "How can I save one but willingly abandon the other!"

His words felt like a knife to her heart, and she clenched her jaw— because in the end, she had chosen to leave Ichirō behind if it would save Sasuke.

"You're _not_ abandoning me," Sakura reassured, trying to intervene in their sudden argument while keeping her eyes trained on Orochimaru.

They didn't seem to hear her.

"We fight this bastard together and we bring your cousin back after!" Naruto said with such simplicity.

"We can't even beat Kakashi-sensei yet, dobe! What makes you _think_ we can win against a Sannin?"

"We are NOT leaving anyone behind!" Naruto threw back. "We'll win this together!"

A deep, amused laughter filled the clearing.

"Such confidence," Orochimaru cocked his head, looking interested. "And a touching sentiment, truly, to believe you can hold against me."

"Shut up, you creepy bastard! We'll totally take you on, 'ttebayo!"

Orochimaru grinned. He leaned forward ever so slightly, mad lust igniting his gaze. "Then let's have a bloody battle, Naruto-kun… with our lives on the line!"

His killing intent stormed down on them, filling the forest in all directions and suffocating the very air. Sasuke collapsed to his knees, shaking and gagging under the pressure. Naruto's previous bravado seemed to instantly vanish as he choked, watching visions of his own death.

Running forward, Sakura shielded her team with her body, arms outstretched, glaring at Orochimaru with the most hatred she could muster.

She had lived through Uchiha Madara. Lived through the resurrection of the Ten-tails. Lived through the goddess Kaguya.

This was nothing.

"To stand under my fear," he noted curiously, "you are no ordinary one either."

With a single hand seal, a strong hurricane of wind tore through the clearing, blasting them apart. Still partially paralyzed with fear, Naruto and Sasuke went flying back without restraint, and Sakura called their names in dread.

Another separation tactic, no doubt.

There was a flicker of black and Orochimaru appeared right before her, blocking her attempt to run to her teammates' side. A white snake burst from his sleeve, fangs glistening for her throat.

Moving on instinct, she twisted into the air, landing a solid strike against its mouth and watching with satisfaction as it exploded. Orochimaru countered back immediately, drawing her into a deadly dance of taijutsu.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto's voice called from some distance behind her. A grunt. "Teme, cut this off me!"

"Stay there!" She yelled, not daring to turn her eyes away from the opponent in front of her.

Sakura was slow. With both limiter seals still in place, she was barely dodging Orochimaru's reach. She knew he was playing with her, cataloging her speed and form with a critical eye.

She couldn't even fight back at full power. Naruto and Sasuke were still conscious somewhere behind her, doing so would raise more questions than she could afford.

Yet they would have to stall until the Anbu arrived.

His hand blurred, suddenly picking up speed and moving faster than she could dodge, pinning her shoulder against a tree. Orochimaru's tongue lashed out, catching her around her waist and locking her arms to her sides.

Sakura cursed.

"I have no use for you," he said slowly, lifting her into the air, "but perhaps I'll come find you later. The one I want to test is the Uchiha."

He slammed an open palm against her stomach as his tongue released her, and Sakura was launched across the forest, losing sight of her two boys.

"Sakura!"

She crashed into tree after tree, unable to use her chakra to align herself and stop the momentum. There was a sting in her abdomen and Sakura lifted up her shirt to find a hastily placed seal. At last, she crashed into a large trunk, dropping onto a branch with a groan. She spat out blood, lifting up her shirt again to see the seal.

Thankfully, it was one she recognized—the Seven Edge Seal—used to disrupt chakra flow. Forming the unseal in her hand, she concentrated, trying to mold the right chakra to execute the release. Her chakra fizzed out, unwilling to be used.

Cursing again, she punched the tree trunk, scanning her surroundings. She could barely sense or hear Orochimaru's battle with Sasuke and Naruto anymore.

There was a rustle behind her, and Sakura moved just in time as fangs longer than her body crushed the branch she was on. An enormous purple snake hissed at her, rearing its head for an attack.

"You have got to be kidding me," she groaned, leaping into the air.

She ran along the trees quickly, trying to gather her focus as the snake shot after her. She forced her breathing to calm, imagining the network of chakra running through her body. If there was one thing she was absolutely confident in, it was her chakra control. Feeling the right amount of chakra on her fingers, she lifted her shirt and slammed her hand down.

 _Seven Edge Unseal!_

There was a blast of chakra and a short stab of pain before Orochimaru's seal vanished, and her chakra was regulating properly again

Sakura swiped across the first limiter seal on her ankle, releasing the inhibitor. A series of clicks ran down her spine and through her limbs, allowing her to move at full speed.

She'd keep her second seal in place, but questions be damned, she wouldn't be caught being slow again.

Pivoting on her heel, she shunshined backwards, her foot thrumming with high frequency chakra. Orochimaru's snake burst forward, jaw wide in an attempt to swallow her whole, and she landed straight on its head, slamming the snake summon into the earth. She felt its skull give away under the pressure of her chakra, cracking outward in a sick noise.

It definitely won't be moving after that.

Kicking of the snake, she sped towards where Naruto and Sasuke were fighting; unable to believe she had been thrown so far back. Her only saving grace was that Orochimaru would keep both of her teammates alive. He couldn't risk injuring Naruto too much without releasing the Kyūbi, and he was unable to procure another Cursed Seal for Sasuke.

Within moments, she arrived back at the scene, finding Naruto's body unconscious against a tree, the Kyūbi's chakra permeating the air. Sasuke was crouched in front of him in a protective manner, sharingan spinning and barely on his feet.

Her chakra poured from the silver band on Sasuke's wrist, and she could see his injuries began to heal.

Orochimaru seemed to notice as well. "An interesting trinket you have there, but I can't have you recovering so soon, Sasuke-kun."

He disappeared, and Sakura knew Sasuke wouldn't be fast enough to dodge. Pushing her body, she performed the fastest shunshin she could manage; landing between the two shinobi and grabbing Orochimaru's wrist in an unforgiving grip.

"Sakura!" Sasuke cried in relief, looking close to collapsing.

"Hey," she smiled. "Sorry, I'm late too. I think Kakashi-sensei's bad habits are rubbing off on me."

There was a blast of chakra as Orochimaru forcibly ripped his hand back, leaping away to another tree.

"You broke the seal," he said in observation, glancing down at his now fractured wrist. "How fascinating!"

She placed a hand on Sasuke's shoulder, looking him square in the eye. "I promise, I'll protect you both with my life."

"Sakura, what—"

She lashed out with two fingers to the side of his head, forcing him into a state of unconsciousness.

Sasuke sagged in her arms, dropping the kunai in his grip. Carefully, she placed him next to Naruto by the branch, making sure both would be safe from possible collateral damage.

Ichirō had long gone quiet, his body rapidly collapsing under the seal.

Her mind ran through hundreds of plans as she stared in tense silence, wondering how much longer she would have to stall for.

It was then she felt it.

A different sort of heaviness weighed down on them, and Sakura inwardly faltered under the feel of it. A flash of annoyance ran across Orochimaru's face as he darted his gaze around, mouth twisting into a grimace. "Company."

They were finally here.

There was a blur of grey and two Anbu appeared between her and Orochimaru, and Sakura could feel the raw killing intent rolling off them in waves.

Three more flashed into the clearing a little further out, and a cry of absolute rage caught her attention.

"Orochimaru!"

Anko landed roughly in the dirt, her coat flying behind her, and eyes slanted in a furious glare. She was panting slightly, skin paler than normal, and clutching at her neck where the cursed seal undoubtedly reappeared. "You're brave… daring to show your face here."

The Sannin merely chuckled, seemingly unaffected by the fact that he was surrounded by numerous enemies. "Impatient as ever, Anko. You appear to be having some trouble however, do you require my help?"

The Anbu closest to her took a step forward. "I'd take a good look at your own luck, snake. I believe I have a score to settle with you."

Even muffled by the mask, Shisui's voice and hair were easily recognizable, and from the way the second Anbu next to him kept glancing back at Sasuke, made his identity clear as well.

"He's mine to kill," Anko hissed, looking as if she was about to fall over any second.

Orochimaru clicked his tongue, his feet sinking into the dirt like liquid. "Not so soon. I'll take my leave for now, but it'll only be a matter of time until we meet again."

"Grab him!" Anko ordered, all but on her knees now, clutching at her neck.

Shisui was the fastest, lashing out with his sword, but Orochimaru had already sunk away, disappearing into the forest ground.

"Reverse-summoning," one of the Anbu muttered, tracing the dirt with his hand. "He was thoroughly prepared."

"Damn that slippery bastard!" Shisui sheathed his katana. "I swear I'll get him back!"

Now that the threat was gone and the Anbu were there, Sakura ran to her teammates, giving them a quick clinical scan. Naruto's ankle had swollen grossly and Sasuke's stomach wound had torn open, but both were still alive.

"Anko, your cursed seal," a quiet voice drifted over, unfamiliar and belonging to a boar masked Anbu. "We need to take you to the Hokage."

"No, the exam can't be stopped," she said weakly. "To the tower."

"Don't be stupid," another rebuked. "Martial law has been implemented the moment Orochimaru appeared. The exam is meaningless now!"

"I'll explain when we get to the tower!" She shot back, struggling to get to her feet. "Panther, Hawk, please tell Hokage-sama to meet us there."

The two Anbu Sakura recognized nodded at the command, and Itachi's cold voice replied, "very well."

"Let's go," Anko commanded, still clutching her neck.

"Wait a second!" Sakura called, surprised at their lack of concern. "Orochimaru attacked this team, you've got to help him! He's dying!"

"It's useless," Anko retorted, looking grim. "There's nothing we can do. Their bodies will be retrieved once the second part of the exam ends."

Sakura blinked in disbelief. "What are you talking about? He's still _alive_!"

"You haven't seen what I have, little girl!" She snapped. "He won't make it past the hour, or the night if he's lucky! That cursed seal can't be countered by any means unless he survives the ordeal first."

"Not without trying! You have to take him with you!" She demanded, furious that she had to make such a request in the first place. Where was the value of shinobi in Konoha? "Hokage-sama can see him! His teammates are _dead_ , the exam doesn't matter to them anymore!"

"That isn't our responsibility, girl," Anko shot back, growling now. "Orochimaru has infiltrated the village and is on the loose, we don't have time to deal with casualties right now."

Sakura felt her blood run cold, and a wash of pure rage filled her chest. She could understand choosing the life of one shinobi over another, but to sacrifice a life for _protocol_ , or to chase a man who was already far beyond their reach was simply inexcusable.

A trickle of her raw killing intent slipped out, causing every Anbu in the clearing to stiffen.

Her face felt like stone as she met Anko's gaze. "What a disappointment. As a Konoha shinobi… you are worse than trash to leave this boy behind."

Anko's eyes went wide, both fear and rage shooting through them. Before she could utter a rebuke, the boar masked Anbu flickered forward, gently taking a hold of Ichirō's body.

"We'll take him to the tower, so enough of this," he muttered. "Hokage-sama will see this through."

Relieved at last, Sakura gave a curt nod and the tense atmosphere seemed to fall apart.

"Let's move!" Boar ordered.

In a mass flicker, the forest clearing became quiet once more.

.

* * *

.

Anko was still trembling as she led the three Anbu to the tower, one hand clutching the throbbing seal on her neck.

She wanted to blame her shaking on the reappeared curse mark, but she knew it was more than that. Far more.

It was only for a split second, and just a slither of killing intent, but Anko felt her neck bow in a long forgotten submission, unable to move or speak in retaliation.

 _What a disappointment._

Suddenly, it wasn't the little pink haired girl staring down at her, but a much taller man with gleaming amber eyes and a twisted smile.

 _I expected better of you, Anko._

 _S-Sensei, I'm trying… I'll do better._

She violently shook her head, banishing the memories from the forefront of her mind. Her heart was still rattling wildly against her ribcage, beating as if she had just avoided a clash with the death god himself and barely escaped with her life.

What the _hell_ was that?

If she hadn't been on the receiving end of it, there was no way Anko would have believed such a feeling came from a little girl. A Genin.

"That was Kakashi-taicho's student, wasn't it?" A soft voice asked, breaking through the silence.

Anko didn't bother turning, already knowing Yūgao was the only female Anbu in the current group.

"Was it?" Anko muttered, hating how her voice shook ever so slightly.

"I believe so," Boar answered stiffly, still carrying the Uchiha boy in his arms. "That line about being trash for abandoning teammates clearly came from him."

She grit her teeth, feeling a sense of anger and humiliation fill her again. She didn't even know why the words of a mere Genin affected her so. "Cheeky little brat, is more like it."

"Taicho said his team was formidable," Yūgao said simply. "He's trained them well."

Anko felt a soulless smile stretch her lips. "No… training can't give you eyes like that."

No one responded, already having given their silent agreement.

It was going to be a long night.

.


End file.
